When I
begged your permission to thank you in person to-morrow, I had not
imagined that I should have been so wilful as to quit the tent tonight.'
'It will not harm you,' said Eva; 'our Arabian nights bear balm.'
'I feel it,' said Tancred; 'this evening will complete the cure you so
benignantly commenced.'
'Mine were slender knowledge and simple means,' said Eva; 'but I rejoice
that they were of use, more especially as I learn that we are all
interested in your pilgrimage.
'The Emir Fakredeen has spoken to you?' said Tancred, inquiringly, and
with a countenance a little agitated.
'He has spoken to me of some things for which our previous conversation
had not entirely unprepared me.'
'Ah!' said Tancred, musingly, 'our previous conversation. It is not
very long ago since I slumbered by the side of your fountain, and yet it
seems to me an age, an age of thought and events.'
'Yet even then your heart was turned towards our unhappy Asia,' said the
Lady of Bethany.
'Unhappy Asia! Do you call it unhappy Asia! This land of divine deeds
and divine thoughts! Its slumber is more vital than the waking life of
the rest of the globe, as the dream of genius is more precious than
the vigils of ordinary men. Unhappy Asia, do you call it? It is the
unhappiness of Europe over which I mourn.
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