Page:The Shaving of Shagpat (1856).djvu/319

faithfully, with zeal, and a tongue that ceased not to rattle on all but the forbidden business. So it was that, after Time, the father of changes, had flown some while without seed of circumstance, one night Baba Mustapha failed to return, and the next and that following; and I was in fear lest aught had befallen him. It was on the fourth morning that I descended early to the silver hall of my palace, and lo! suddenly one that rushed into it like a quarry seeking shelter, pale of face, and turban awry; and he rushed to the fountain and dipped his head therein, and was clearly a man that wished to certify to himself the fact of his existence in this world. Now when he looked up I saw that it was Baba Mustapha, and that in his absence he had mixed with terrors and drunk of the waters of tribulation. So I cried to him, "Ho! Baba Mustapha!" but he took no heed of me, and looked with the eye of a sheep. I examined him, and there were marks upon him of fresh castigation. Then I perceived that he had fallen into the hands of the inimical, who had chased his wits from their habitations: so to revive his spirit and bring speech to his lips, I sent to the meat-market and bought a sheep whole and unsheared, remembering what is said, 'The habitations of the wits are habits;' and I had the sheep placed before Baba Mustapha, beside him tackle and soap for soaping preparatory to the shave, to tempt him to action; praise be to thy craft, O Master of the Event! For awhile he recognized not this; but presently the uses of the barber warmed in him and thawed forgetfulness;