“But why am not I to be allowed to acknowledge the obligation according to my own sense of your merit?” asked his patron.
“Because it is Eureka’s chief pleasure,” replied Zabra, with a faltering voice, “to reward after her own fashion those whom she employs to serve him to whom she is devoted; and surely you would not wish to deprive her of a gratification to the enjoyment of which she puts forth, as you acknowledge, so good a title.”
“Well, well, I must reserve my gratitude for her then, I suppose,” said Oriel Porphyry. “But, of course, you will remain with me as you have hitherto done.”
“Till there shall be no longer any occasion for my stay,” responded the other. “While you love Eureka, there will always appear to me to be a necessity for my remaining with you; but when your love for her disappears, there will be no longer occasion for my presence.”
“Love her I always shall, for I always must; so if your stay with me depends upon the duration of my affection for her, we are not likely to separate in this life,” observed the young merchant.
“I would I were certain of it,” murmured his companion.
“Of nothing ought you to be more assured,” replied Oriel. “Were I entirely to forget the dazzling beauty of her features, there is an earnestness of purpose in her character which will make itself remembered at all times. The nobility of her sentiments I honoured, by endeavouring to become worthy of her greatness, and the confidence with which I was treated excited in me a desire to act in such a manner as should give her no cause to withdraw it. In her person there appeared to me the avatar of all things noble, fond, and beautiful, and I did it homage with so earnest a devotion that my respect soon became an idolatry. I had no enjoyment except in her presence; I could find no excellence from which she was absent. I honoured her above all honour. I regarded her as the best as well as the dearest of human beings. I was eloquent in her praise, and devout in her worship; and thus from day to day passed the joyous time, teeming with happiness, and prodigal of honours, till there seemed in the eyes of each to be no wealth and no distinction worthy to be desired, which the other did not possess. Truly was Eureka all the world to me. An empire was in her love, and all honourable things were in her gift.”
Zabra had listened attentively, but nothing save a brighter glow in his lustrous eyes expressed the interest he took in the conversation. He did not attempt to interrupt the speaker, and when the last sentence was concluded he made no reply.
“Can you add nothing in her praise, Zabra?” asked Oriel Porphyry, after a pause of a few minutes.
“She requires no praise, Oriel, certainly none from me,” replied the youth. “Your applause is no doubt gratifying to her—for the heart that truly loves cannot exist but in the estimation of the lover. But there is an eulogy beyond mere praise, for which the devoted are ever desirous—the strong and earnest love, whose voice is action, and whose language is sympathy.”