“By the will of Allah, the One, the King of Men, the King of the Day of Judgment, may this letter be safely delivered into the hands of Aziza Nurmahal, Gengizkhani.
“A prophecy is a prophecy. But a human heart is a human heart, a human soul is a human soul, and it is only the dust and the grime and the sufferings which purify the truly great. Thus, when Al Nakia came to me, I gave him but little help. Nor did I tell him of the prophecy. For Tamerlanistan needed a man who could follow his own mind, unhampered, unclogged, by prophecies and traditions.
“If, thus, Al Nakia proved himself to be a good and strong man, the prophecy proved true; if he proved himself bad and weak, the prophecy proved untrue.
“And it DID prove true!
“I am old. Thus wise. Thus, too, stubborn. I shall never, therefore, return to Tamerlanistan. For, while my stewardship was good in its time and generation, time changes, and customs, and conditions. And, being old and stubborn, I would doubtless disapprove of many innovations of which Al Nakia and his brother would approve. Thence would come unhappiness and bitterness. Therefore I shall never return.
“Gossip travels swiftly on wings. It travels East and West, North and South, even to the place where I shall live out my days.
“Thus do I know of the double wedding, the double fulfillment, and my old heart is happy at the double happiness, and just a little sad with envy—the envy of an old and useless man who, years, years ago, filled the caverns of his dreams and his life with words and deeds of love.
“May thou, Aziza Nurmahal, and the foreign woman bear as many man-children as there are hairs in my beard!
“Hajji Akhbar Khan, once Itizad el-Dowleh.”
THE END.
