CHAPTER XXVII — Of the preparations made by the chief physician to receive the Shah as his guest, and of the great expense which threatened him.
In my walk I had almost determined to quit the doctor's house immediately, and abandon Tehran, such was the desperate view I took of my situation; but my love for Zeenab overcame this resolution; and in the hope of seeing her again, I continued to drag on a miserable existence as a dependent on Mirza Ahmak. He had no suspicion that I was his rival, and that I had been the cause of the late confusion in his harem; but he was aware that some one must have had access to it, and therefore took such precautions for the future, that I found great difficulty in discovering how it fared with my love, or what had been the consequences of the anger of the khanum. I daily watched the door of the anderûn, in the hope of seeing Zeenab in the suite of her mistress when she went out, but in vain: there was no indication of her, and my imagination made me apprehend either that she was kept in close confinement, or that she had fallen a victim of the violence of her enemies in the harem. My impatience had risen to the utmost, when I, one day, perceived that Nûr Jehan,[47] the black slave, had issued from the house by herself, and was making her way to the bazaar. I followed her, and trusting to the friendship that she formerly entertained for the mistress of my heart, I ventured to accost her.
'Peace be with you, Nûr Jehan!' said I; 'where are you going in such haste by yourself?'
'May your kindness never be less, Aga Hajji[48], answered she; 'I am bound to the druggist's for our Cûrdish slave.'
'What! Zeenab?' exclaimed I, in great agitation. 'What has befallen her? Is she sick?'
'Ah, poor thing,' replied the good negro girl, 'she has been sick and sorry too. You Persians are a wicked nation. We who are black, and slaves, have twice the heart that you have. You may talk of your hospitality, and of your kindness to strangers; but was there ever an animal, not to say a human creature, treated in the way that this poor stranger has been?'
'What have they done to her? For God's sake tell me, Nûr Jehan!' said I; 'by my soul, tell me!'