No word from Selim's bosom broke;

One sigh Zuleika's thought bespoke:

Still gazed he through the lattice grate,

Pale, mute, and mournfully sedate.

To him Zuleika's eye was turned,

But little from his aspect learned:

Equal her grief, yet not the same;

Her heart confessed a gentler flame:[fp] 260

But yet that heart, alarmed or weak,

She knew not why, forbade to speak.

Yet speak she must—but when essay?

"How strange he thus should turn away!

Not thus we e'er before have met;

Not thus shall be our parting yet."

Thrice paced she slowly through the room,

And watched his eye—it still was fixed:

She snatched the urn wherein was mixed

The Persian Atar-gul's perfume,[144] 270

And sprinkled all its odours o'er

The pictured roof[145] and marble floor:

The drops, that through his glittering vest[fq]

The playful girl's appeal addressed,

Unheeded o'er his bosom flew,

As if that breast were marble too.

"What, sullen yet? it must not be—

Oh! gentle Selim, this from thee!"

She saw in curious order set

The fairest flowers of Eastern land— 280

"He loved them once; may touch them yet,

If offered by Zuleika's hand."

The childish thought was hardly breathed

Before the rose was plucked and wreathed;

The next fond moment saw her seat

Her fairy form at Selim's feet:

"This rose to calm my brother's cares

A message from the Bulbul[146] bears;

It says to-night he will prolong

For Selim's ear his sweetest song; 290

And though his note is somewhat sad,

He'll try for once a strain more glad,

With some faint hope his altered lay

May sing these gloomy thoughts away.