Act 2 — Scene II

The Courtyard of a poor House. (The same scene as Act I. Scene III.). The hot sun of the afternoon is kept off by some awnings. The birds in the cages hang on the wall.

Marsinah is seated on the bench, her lute in her lap. She sings:—

Narjis. (Coming out of the house with a large water-jar and going to the well.) Out upon thee, singing away thy day! An thou help me not in the house, I’ll take away thy trinkets.

Marsinah. Touch me, and my father shall hear of it!

Narjis. Thy father! ’Twill be long ere thou seest thy father again.

Marsinah. I’ll not believe it.

Narjis. I tell thee this sudden wealth—(With a gesture of thieving.)—came but by way of his fingers. They’ve found him. They’ve taken him.

(A knock on the house door.)

Marsinah. Yehh! ’Tis he!

Narjis. Or the watch come for thy anklets.

Marsinah. (Hiding her anklets as she sits.) O Narjis!

(Another knock.)

Narjis. (Hurries to the door calling out.) Here am I! Here am I! Who knocks?

Hajj. (Outside.) I! Thy master. Open, O Narjis.

Narjis. Allah! ’Tis thy father. (She unlocks the house door.)

Marsinah. (Springing up.) What said I?

(Enter Hajj. He is, of course, in his brilliant Persian gown with his silver sword in his belt.)

Hajj. Where’s Marsinah? (He enters the court.)

Marsinah. (Overcome by his appearance.) O my father! What fresh magnificence is this? Did they set thee free?

Hajj. (Looking at Narjis.) What hast thou been saying to her? Calling me thief behind my heels?

Narjis. Not a word, O my lord. I am thy slave of admiration.

Hajj. O slippery mouth! Are thieves clad in robes of honour? Are thieves given swords of office?

Marsinah. By my youth! ’Tis all silver.

Hajj. ’Twill be gold before night.

Marsinah. Gold?

Hajj. And before yet another night all jewels and gems.

Marsinah. Gold! Jewels! O king of fathers! Hast thou discovered some enchanted treasure?

Hajj. Yea, a treasure for me and a treasure for thee! My dreams are dreams no longer. They are alive as the breath of thy lips. (To Narjis.) Go fetch me my bundle of magic.

Narjis. All the tricks?

Hajj. All, and the robes.

Narjis. Hearing and obedience. (She goes into the house at back.)

Hajj. (To Marsinah.) Thy birds!

Marsinah. My birds? Thou wilt have a care of them as ever? (She brings the bird cages to him.)

Hajj. Care? Care matters not now, O my doe! Thou shalt have braver birds than those ere long. Flocks of white ones and black ones to fly at thy beck and call.

Marsinah. White ones? Black ones?

Hajj. (Laughing.) Ha! Ha! My large-eyed wonder! Human birds; slaves! Slaves!

Marsinah. (Amazed.) I—slaves?

Hajj. (Squats and looks into Marsinah’s eyes.) Larger and larger! As many as thy whims cry out for. O Marsinah, child of mine! Allah hath poured blessings untold upon thee. Thou art to be wed to-night.

Marsinah. (Joyfully.) O my father! Thou hast seen him! (She glances up at the garden wall.)

Hajj. Him? Whom?

Marsinah. (Confused.) Him!

Hajj. Thy husband? Seen him? I am his cup-companion, the friend of his bosom, his wazir to come.

Marsinah. His wazir?

Hajj. Indeed, how canst thou guess? There! I’ll play with thee no longer. Know thy full happiness. Thou art to be wife to the Wazir Mansur.

Marsinah. (Breathless.) Mansur?

Hajj. He! What sayest thou now! Has thy joy stifled thee quite?

Marsinah. (Blankly.) Mansur? (She sinks down, staring before her.)

Hajj. Yes, say it! Say it! Till thy heart learneth to hold it! To beat to its measure! Mansur! Mansur! Mansur! Mighty now, mightier still ere long! His wife! None above thee, none thine equal!

Marsinah. (Faintly, looking up.) O my father, I kiss the ground. Wed me not to this man.

Hajj. (Rises.) Not? Not?

Marsinah. Not to him, O my father. I pray Allah’s pardon, not to him.

Hajj. ’Tis Mansur I speak of—the Wazir of Police. The favoured of Fortune. Him thou art to wed, to be his great lady, his wife of wives.

Marsinah. Alas, my long grief! Say it not again, I entreat thee.

Hajj. Say it not again?

Marsinah. O my father. Thou’lt not do this to me.

Hajj. Not what?

Marsinah. Not give me to him. Not to him.

Hajj. Thou shalt be his by sundown.

Marsinah. Sundown? Sundown? This night?

Hajj. How oft must I say it!

Marsinah. By the Ineffable! May I be thy ransom here and hereafter! But this,—this,—by the warmth twixt my heart and thine, the sacred bond of child and parent, do not this thing to me, O my father and lord, not this!

Hajj. Art thou raving?

Marsinah. O sweet my father! Gentle my father! Father of the true eyes and tender! Thou didst love my mother! Thou wert her salvation, her soul’s consolation in the hour of her need! By her memory, I conjure thee.

Hajj. (Gently.) O Marsinah, my gazelle, rise! What sudden fright is thine? Has the might of Mansur’s name o’erwhelmed thee?

Marsinah. O, ’tis not his name! ’Tis not fright! ’Tis—(Sits up, with sudden horror.) I cannot go to him! I will not!

Hajj. Will not? Will not? Now woe to thee, O thou daughter of sin! May Allah never bless thee! Is such my recompense for all the years of toiling and moiling, of cark and care? Have I worked at my begging from dawn to dusk, screamed myself hoarse for thy sake? And dost thou now cry out, “I will not?” “Will not!” to me, thine own father?

Marsinah. (Quieter.) Pardon me, O my lord. I meant—I cannot. I cannot!

Hajj. Cannot, forsooth? Cannot! Art thou all my soul holds dear on earth, and come I here to thee with the tiding of tidings—and thou like the hyena snarlest and bitest the hand that feedeth thee? Why canst thou not? Why wilt thou not? What is the why of thy why? Speak!

Marsinah. Awah! Awah! Awah! (She weeps on the ground.)

Hajj. (Squatting by her side, imitating her.) “Awah! Awah!” By Allah! Verily he was a suffering father who said: “a son is the lamp of a dark house—a daughter a desolation.”

(Narjis comes out of the house, with a robe and a bright kerchief.)

Narjis. (Seeing Marsinah on the ground.) What’s here?

Hajj. Comest thou too? A pretty child I have, indeed! A pretty spirit thou hast fostered in her.

Narjis. I—O my master?

Hajj. Thou—O hell hag. Look on her! There she lieth grovelling and howling like a kicked dog, so the whole quarter will wonder and come rapping on the door. And what for? What for? Because the honour of honours has fallen upon her and she is to be wife to the Wazir Mansur.

Narjis. Mansur’s wife! By the prophet, is this so? (She comes to Marsinah and kneels beside her.) O Marsinah! Hath thy star risen at last?

Marsinah. O Narjis, I wish not to be his wife.

Hajj. (Rises.) I wish not! I cannot! I will not! Whose wife then wouldst thou be, O thou misery?

Marsinah. I know not. No one’s. If our neighbour the gardener had a son—his wife would I be.

Narjis. I’ve told thee before—he hath no son.

Hajj. Ha! The old man, the gardener, a son? He, with a face like a cobbler’s apron? Ha! Ha! Thou art jesting. ’Tis well. Thou hast fooled me long enough. Dry thy tears. Dry thy tears, I tell thee.

Marsinah. I am not jesting. Sooner would I die than go to the Lord Mansur.

Hajj. By my soul—sayst thou true?

Marsinah. By thy soul. (She holds up her right hand.)

Hajj. (With intense rage.) Now Allah damn the mother that bore thee, and the father that begot thee! May thy bones rot and thy body be flung on the ash-heaps beyond the gates of the city—thou child of abomination, thou shame unforgettable! We shall see! (He goes to the street door and opens it—calling.) Ho, masters! Hither!

(Two Eunuchs of the Guard of the Harim enter. Marsinah veils herself.)

Hajj. (To the Eunuchs.) This way! Lead ye this maid to your Lord Mansur! Her life be on your heads.

(The Eunuchs cross to Marsinah and lay hands on her.)

Marsinah. (Making a final appeal to her father, kneeling.) O my father.

Hajj. (Sternly.) Away!

Marsinah. Awah! Awah! Awah!

(She is dragged off by the Eunuchs.)

(Hajj and Narjis look at each other and nod their heads with utmost content.)

[Curtain]