"
"Then, Butheita, then will I kiss you," cried he, and with
passionate violence he clasped her in his arms, and pressed a kiss
on her lips. He then turned and left the tent.
Butheita sank down upon the mat, and with outstretched arms she
knelt there, motionless, a statue of ecstasy, of blissful love.
Mohammed stepped out before the tent, and beckoned to the sheik to
approach.
"I beg that you will accompany me, sheik; it will be too fatiguing
for your daughter to take this ride the second time."
"Gladly, master; she has already told me so herself, and I am
ready," said he, commanding the dromedary to kneel down. Mohammed
sprang into the palanquin, and the sheik followed him.
"Farewell, Butheita," he cried. She did not answer; she did not wish
to go out, as he might see her tears, and her father, too, might
observe them. She therefore remained silent. She had drawn the
curtain over the entrance to the inner apartment, and lay on the mat
weeping; weeping and laughing at the same time, for joy and pain--
ecstasy and pain were contending for victory in her heart. "He is
gone, gone! and yet he is ever with me."
The dromedary flew over the desert still more swiftly than in the
morning, his feet hardly touching the ground; clouds of sand were
whirled aloft, and enveloped the animal and the riders as with a
thick veil. No one saw them, and, had any one seen them, he could
not have told who they were.
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