Then the guards of the palace doors, who were also women, took him, and
led him in; and all the women who had brought him crowded in behind.
And they mounted stairs, and after a while, they entered at last a great
hall, whose pillars of alabaster were reflected in its dark green
crystal floor, giving it the semblance of a silent pool in which a
multitude of colossal swans had buried their necks beneath the water.
And there Aja found himself in the presence of the King.

And instantly, all the women screamed together: Victory to thee,
Maharájá! for here have we brought thee another husband for thy lovely
daughter. And Aja started. And he said to himself: Another husband! How
many husbands, then, has this strange King's daughter got already? Has
she an insatiable thirst for husbands, whose number I am brought to
swell? So as he stood reflecting, the King leaped from his throne, and
came towards him. And as Aja looked at him, he was seized with amazement
greater than before. For the King resembled a very incarnation of the
essence of grief, yet such, that it was difficult to behold him without
laughter, as if the Creator had made him to exhibit skill in combining
the two. For his long thin hair was pure white, as if with sorrow, and
his eyes were red, as if with weeping, and great hollow ruts were
furrowed in his sunk and withered cheeks, as if the tears had worn
themselves channels in which to run. And though he was tall, he was
bent and old, as if bowed down by a load of care. And he tried, as if in
vain, to smile, as he said in a mournful voice that quavered and
cracked: O man, whoever thou art, long have I waited for thee, and glad
indeed I am to see thee, and inclined to dance like a peacock at the
sight of a rainy cloud.

And as he gazed upon the King, Aja was seized with sudden laughter that
would not be controlled: saying within himself: Much in common they have