Said he, 'Leave me not, my betrothed: what am I without thy counsel? And
go not from me, or this adventure will come to miserable issue.'

So she said, 'Thou beginnest to feel my worth?'

He answered, 'O Noorna! was woman like thee before in this world? Surely
'tis a mask I mark thee under; yet art thou perforce of sheer wisdom and
sweet manners lovely in my sight; and I have a thirst to hear thee and
look on thee.'

While he spake, a beam of struggling splendour burst from her, and she
said, 'O thou dear youth, yes! I must even go. But I go glad of heart,
knowing thee prepared to love me. I must go to counteract the
machinations of Karaz, for he's at once busy, vindictive, and cunning,
and there's no time for us to lose; so farewell, my betrothed, and make
thy wits keen to know me when we next meet.'

So he said, 'And I--whither go I?'

She answered, 'To the City of Oolb straightway.'

Then he, 'But I know not its bearing from this spot: how reach it?'

She answered, 'What! thou with the phial of Paravid in thy vest, that
endoweth, a single drop of it, the flowers, the herbage, the very stones
and desert sands, with a tongue to articulate intelligible talk?'

Said he, 'Is it so?'