I shall pay off
Aberdeen for enclosing the Archbishop's letter to Guizot. Combination
upon combination! The calico merchants will call out for a prince of the
house of Shehaab! Riza will propose me; Bourqueney will not murmur, and
Sir Canning, finding he is in a mess, will sign a fine note of words
about the peace of Europe and the prosperity of Lebanon, and 'tis
finished.'
'And my father, you have seen him?'
'I have seen him,' said the young Emir, and he cast his eyes on the
ground.
'He has done so much,' said Eva.
'Ask him to do more, Rose of Sharon,' said Fakredeen, like a child about
to cry for a toy, and he threw himself on his knees before Eva, and kept
kissing her robe. 'Ask him to do more,' he repeated, in a suppressed
tone of heart-rending cajolery; 'he can refuse you nothing. Ask him, ask
him, Eva! I have no friend in the world but you; I am so desolate.
You have always been my friend, my counsellor, my darling, my ruby, my
pearl, my rose of Rocnabad! Ask him, Eva; never mind my faults; you
know me by heart; only ask him!'
She shook her head.
'Tell him that you are my sister, that I am his son, that I love you
so, that I love him so; tell him anything. Say that he ought to do it
because I am a Hebrew.
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