Nathan the Wise Part 16

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.