Nathan the Wise - novelonlinefull.com
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SITTAH.
Are you crazy?
HAFI.
The game is not decided; Saladin, You have not lost.
SALADIN (scarcely hearkening).
Well, well!--pay, pay.
HAFI.
Pay, pay - There stands your queen.
SALADIN (still walking about).
It boots not, she is useless.
SITTAH (low to Hafi).
Do say that I may send and fetch the gold.
HAFI.
Aye, aye, as usual--But although the queen Be useless, you are by no means check-mate.
SALADIN (dashes down the board).
I am. I will then -
HAFI.
So! small pains, small gains; As got, so spent.
SALADIN (to Sittah).
What is he muttering there?
SITTAH (to Saladin, winking meanwhile to Hafi).
You know him well, and his unyielding way.
He chooses to be prayed to--maybe he's envious -
SALADIN.
No, not of thee, not of my sister, surely.
What do I hear, Al-Hafi, are you envious?
HAFI.
Perhaps. I'd rather have her head than mine, Or her heart either.
SITTAH.
Ne'ertheless, my brother, He pays me right, and will again to-day.
Let him alone. There, go away, Al-Hafi; I'll send and fetch my dinars.
HAFI.
No, I will not; I will not act this farce a moment longer: He shall, must know it.
SALADIN.
Who? what?
SITTAH.
O Al-Hafi, Is this thy promise, this thy keeping word?
HAFI.
How could I think it was to go so far?
SALADIN.
Well, what am I to know?
SITTAH.
I pray thee, Hafi, Be more discreet.
SALADIN.
That's very singular.
And what can Sittah then so earnestly, So warmly have to sue for from a stranger, A dervis, rather than from me, her brother?
Al-Hafi, I command. Dervis, speak out.
SITTAH.
Let not a trifle, brother, touch you nearer Than is becoming. You know I have often Won the same sum of you at chess, and, as I have not just at present need of money, I've left the sum at rest in Hafi's chest, Which is not over-full; and thus the stakes Are not yet taken out--but, never fear, It is not my intention to bestow them On thee, or Hafi.
HAFI.
Were it only this -
SITTAH.
Some more such trifles are perhaps unclaimed; My own allowance, which you set apart, Has lain some months untouched.
