Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/383

game of eye play with the children who deem them- selves men, shooting their love-darts before his very face, without modesty or shanie, and never so much as casting a glance his way, unless they would seek his help to aid them in their intrigues and their stolen meetings. Ya Allah! It is very evil, Tan, to grow old, and age cometh apace. One day a man is young; on the morrow-or so it seems-youth has fled; a little more and the eyes wax dim, the ears are heavy of hearing, and only the liver within him is unchanged in the fury of unsatisfied desire. To cach one of us age is a surprise-so quickly have the years slipped by, so short the time that has sped, so gradual the decay of the body, yet so much swifter is it than the change wrought in the soul. Some there be who turn their thoughts to money when the maidens will have nought of them; but what music is there in the clink-u-chunk of silver pieces compared with the love words whispered in the darkness by the lips of a girl, and what beauty abides in the moon face of a coin by the side of the pale face and laughing eyes of a maiden ripe for love? Ambui! It is very hard to grow old. I, your servant, sit here all the day long, fashioning kris hilts and dagger sheaths for the youths, that they may make a brave show in the eyes of their lights o' love, and the young folk pass hither aud thither in my sight, and I mark the glint in their eyes as they look the one upon the other, till tears of envy well up in these old eyes of mine, for well I know that never again will a girl have unbought love to offer me.