" Then she bent
her head for shame, and indeed her cheeks were tanned with the
journey and the sun. So the Khalif's sister left her that day
and returned to her on the morrow with clothes and necklaces of
jewels and dressed her; after which the Khalif came in to her and
sat down by her side, and his sister said to him, "Look on this
damsel, in whom God hath united every perfection of beauty and
grace." So he said to Num, "Draw back the veil from thy face;"
but she would not unveil, and he beheld not her face. However,
he saw her wrists and love of her entered his heart; and he said
to his sister, "I will not go in to her for three days, till she
be cheered by thy converse." Then he left her, but Num ceased
not to brood over her case and sigh for her separation from
Nimeh, till, at eventide, she fell sick of a fever and ate not
nor drank; and her face grew pale and her charms faded. They
told the Khalif of this, and it grieved him; so he visited her
with physicians and men of skill, but none could come at a cure
for her.
As for Nimeh, when he returned home, he sat down on his bed and
cried, "Ho, Num!" But she answered not; so he rose in haste and
called out, but none came to him, for all the women in the house
had hidden themselves, for fear of him.
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