"Yes, Sitta Nefysseh, I shall remain with you throughout all time,
throughout eternity, for love is eternal."
His lips are hushed, but his eyes still gaze up at her, for a
moment, with the lustre of life; then they grow dim and cold, and
slowly the veil of death sinks down over his countenance. The lips
that but now spoke the words, "I love you," are hushed forever!
Bowed down over him, her eyes axed intently on the features from
which the last traces of life are vanishing, she sees the kiss that
Death has imprinted on his lips; and the last smile slowly fade from
his countenance.
And again she neither weeps nor laments; she only tears the veil
from her head with a wild, despairing movement, and lays it over the
countenance of her beloved dead.
"Sleep, Youssouf, sleep beneath my veil! You are dead, and my
happiness dies with you--I shall be a living monument to your
memory! I shall live in poverty and solitude, Youssouf, and the
treasures which you buried for me beneath the earth shall remain
there, a subterranean monument to my love. They shall never see the
light of day! You have buried my treasures, and I will bury my
greatest, holiest treasure--you, Youssouf Bey; and with you Sitta
Nefysseh buries her youth, her love, and her grandeur, to be
henceforth only a poor widow, who lives in solitary retirement, a
prey to sorrow. Sleep, Youssouf Bey! You will awake with me above,
to an eternal life--sleep, Youssouf!"
She lifts the veil once more, and kisses the forehead, now cold as
marble; she then replaces it softly, and leaves the room.
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