42 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
palace remained, wine was served, and, accord- 
ing to custom, the ladies were admitted in their 
veils. 
Mher-ul-Nissa was prepossessed by the noble mien 
of the young prince ; and being suddenly fired with a 
mixed ambition and love, she resolved upon lay- 
ing siege to his heart ; for already had the youthful 
beauty discovered that, with her, to besiege would, 
in all likelihood, be to conquer. She sung; the 
prince was in raptures. She danced ; his sense of 
propriety was scarcely able to restrain him from 
casting himself immediately at her feet. Her sta- 
ture, — the glimpses of her shape which from time to 
time he enjoyed, — her gait and graceful action, — 
the lovely rotundity of her limbs, as once or twice 
only he espied them through the silver folds of her 
ample dress, — all these, mingled with certain whis- 
pers of report, had raised his ideas of her beauty to 
the highest possible pitch ; and, at a moment when 
his eyes appeared as if they would devour her, she, 
by an affected accident, dropped her veil, and shone 
upon him, at once, in all the dazzling refulgence of 
her wonderful beauty. The confusion which she 
admirably feigned heightened not a little the effect 
of her charms, and her timorous eye stealthily lighted 
for a moment upon the prince, and kindled all his 
soul into a devouring flame of love. He was mute 
during the rest of the entertainment, and the accom- 
plished Mher-ul-Nissa fixed immoveably, by her 
