Lallcheen did retire more than ever incensed against his royal master. He was stung deeply at the insult offered to his child, in the supposition that she would barter her purity for her father’s freedom. He felt himself, moreover, grievously wronged by his royal master harbouring the thought that he could be base enough to sell his daughter’s honour at any price. It was an injury neither to be forgiven nor forgotten. He quitted the royal presence with a throbbing heart and burning brow;--the blood had receded from his cheek and lips when he entered the apartment of his child. He found her singing an air in a voice that would have enchanted the nightingales of Cashmere, or drawn a tear of sympathy from the eye of a Peri. It was a strain of exquisite tenderness: the parent’s emotions were calmed at the sound of her celestial voice; but the blood returned not to those channels from which the silent struggles of passion had banished it. “My father,” said Agha, as he entered; “why so pale?” “I have been disturbed, my child, by the king.” “How?” “He would give me freedom.” “Well, would not that be a blessed deliverance?” “At the price of my child’s honour?” Agha’s cheeks flushed,--they were overspread with an intense crimson. The blood seemed to ebb rapidly from her heart, which fluttered for a moment; but the reflux almost instantly came and poured in upon it a tide of womanly indignation. She continued silent, but the base proposals of one brother imparted by contrast in her thoughts a beautiful colouring to the honourable intentions of the other; and she was already half prepared to love Shums-ood-Deen, and detest his royal relative. “Well, Agha, what answer shall I return to the master who honours his servant by loving that servant’s daughter?” “Does my father require that I should frame an answer? Could not his own heart suggest it? My answer would be precisely such as I should return to a snake, were it to ask if I would permit it to sting me.” “I have anticipated your feelings, my child, and given the sovereign no hopes. He threatens violence; his evil purposes, therefore, must be counteracted by artifice. You must feign acquiescence with his wishes. Having once hushed him into security, I will invite him to a banquet, under the promise of resigning you to his possession, and he shall then see that impunity is not the indefeasible right of kings.” In obedience to this determination, Lallcheen affected to concur with his master’s views; but prevailed upon him on some plausible pretence to delay enforcing his claim to Agha for a few weeks, promising implicit obedience to his wishes at the end of a specified period.