Three Novels of Ancient Egypt

They were again seized by disbelief and looked at the lovely girl, whom they found enraged. “That is a slanderous lie!” they heard her say to him.

“Never, by the Lord's truth. I have known you for a long time, but I hadn't resolved to find you until my patience betrayed me, and I could no longer bear to miss you so.”

“How can you claim that, when I have never laid eyes on you before this moment?”

“And she doesn't want to see you after this moment, either,” one of her companions quipped.

Bitterly, another complained, “There's nothing uglier than when soldiers attack girls!”

But he paid them no heed. Then he said to the one from whose face he could not turn his eyes away, “The more I see you, the more my soul is filled with you.”

“Liar… you're shameless.”

“Far be it from me that I should lie — but I bear your cruel speech with love, out of respect for the lovely mouth that utters it.”

“No — you're just a liar who has been rejected, looking for a crooked way in!”

“I said, far be it from me that I should lie — and here's proof.”

As he spoke, he reached his hand into his breast and pulled out the picture of her face, then told her, “Would I be able to paint this picture without filling my eyes with your splendor?”

The girl glanced at the picture — and was unable to suppress a sigh of disbelief, anger, and fear. Her companions were also indignant. One of them attacked him without warning, wanting to snatch it away from him, but he put up his arm with lightning speed, grinning triumphantly. “Do you see how you occupy my imagination and my soul?” he said.

“This is vileness and depravity,” she said, seething with fury.

“Why?” he challenged her. “That you so captivated me that I created your image?”

“Give me the picture,” she commanded, with a sharpness not without an element of entreaty.

“I shall not part with it, so long as I live,” he replied.

“I see you are one of the soldiers from the military academy,” she remarked. “Beware, then — your ill manners could expose you to the harshest of punishments.”

Calmly he answered, “To gaze upon you, I would expose myself to the sternest chastisement.”

“How amazing that you have brought this affliction upon yourself!”

“Yes — one that is most deserving of compassion.”

“What did you want to accomplish with this picture?” she demanded.

“With this picture, I wanted to cure myself of what your eyes have done to me — and now I want you to cure me of what you have done to me with this picture,” he answered.

“I never dreamed that I'd ever meet a man of your insolence.”

“And did I ever dream that I would surrender my mind and my heart in a fleeting instant?”

Then another girl shouted at him, “Did you run after us in order to spoil our happiness?”

Another said to him in the same tone, “You foolish, impudent young man! If you don't leave very quickly, I'll scream for help from the people nearby!”

He looked confidently into the empty space surrounding them and said quietly, “I'm not used to asking for anything, so this is painful for me.”

The beautiful peasant girl shouted, “Do you want to force me to listen to you?”

“No, but I do long that your heart would soften so it would want to hear me out.”

“And if you found my heart like a rock that would not soften?”

“Could that delicate breast really enfold a stone?”

“Only when it's faced by the most foolish of fools.”

“And in the face of a lover's suffering?”

She stamped the earth — with her foot and said violently, “Then it becomes even crueler.”

“The heart of the crudest girl is like a block of ice: if a warm breath touches it, then it melts and pours as pure water,” he retorted.

“This talk that you think so refined,” she replied, sarcastically, “shows that you're a phony soldier, the body of a girl hiding in military clothes. Perhaps you stole this uniform, just as you stole my image before.”

Djedef's face flushed. “May the Lord indulge you,” he said. “I truly am a soldier — and I shall win your heart, as I win in every field of battle.”

“What field of battle are you talking about?” she retorted in derision. “The nation has not known war since before the art of soldiery condescended to your acquaintance. You're just a soldier whose victories are awarded in the fields of peace and safety.”

Increasingly embarrassed, Djedef said, “Do you not know, my beauty, that the life of a pupil in the military academy is like that of a soldier in the field? But, since you've no knowledge of such things, my heart forgives your taunting me so.”

Enraged, she burst out, “Truly I deserve rebuke — for being so patient with your impertinence!”

She was about to walk away, but he blocked her path, smiling. “I wonder how I can gain your affection?” he said. “I am very unlucky. Have you ever taken a trip on the Nile in a skiff?”

Frightened of his trapping their mistress, the girls gathered around to protect her. “Let us go now, because the sunset is upon us,” one of them told him.