A sudden silence ensued; and the
Princess, glancing a look at FERAMORZ, saw plainly she must wait for a
more courageous moment.
But the glories of Nature and her wild, fragrant airs playing freshly over
the current of youthful spirits will soon heal even deeper wounds than the
dull Fadladeens of this world can inflict. In an evening or two after,
they came to the small Valley of Gardens which had been planted by order
of the Emperor for his favorite sister Rochinara during their progress to
Cashmere some years before; and never was there a more sparkling
assemblage of sweets since the Gulzar-e-Irem or Rose-bower of Irem. Every
precious flower was there to be found that poetry or love or religion has
ever consecrated; from the dark hyacinth to which Hafez compares his
mistress's hair to be _Camalata_ by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of
Indra is scented.[142] As they sat in the cool fragrance of this
delicious spot and LALLA ROOKH remarked that she could fancy it the abode
of that flower-loving Nymph whom they worship in the temples of Kathay,
[143] or of one of those Peris, those beautiful creatures of the air who
live upon perfumes and to whom a place like this might make some amends
for the Paradise they have lost,--the young Poet in whose eyes she
appeared while she spoke to be one of the bright spiritual creatures she
was describing said hesitatingly that he remembered a Story of a Peri,
which if the Princess had no objection he would venture to relate.
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