"Such is life!" mused Cherami, resorting to the kirsch once more; "when you're with a woman who pleases you, when you're playing an exciting game of cards, time doesn't walk; it flies: _hora vita simul!_ At other times, it crawls like a tortoise; and yet, the time is sure to come when we find that it has moved altogether too fast! That simply proves that men are never satisfied with the present. Ah! what a pretty, old fairy tale that is of _Nourjahad and Cheredin_, which impressed me so when I read it--in my youth. Monsieur Nourjahad is a young, handsome, and wealthy Mussulman, who lacks nothing to make him happy, and, of course, he isn't satisfied; he complains because time doesn't go fast enough to suit him, because he is to marry his cousin at twenty-five, and to reign over a great kingdom when he is thirty. Cheredin is an old dervish, something of a sorcerer; he hears Nourjahad railing at destiny, and says to him: 'I can grant you the power to make time pass as swiftly as you wish; but, beware! it is very dangerous. You will shorten your life, if you do not moderate your desires.'--The young man is overjoyed, he accepts, and promises to use in moderation the power which is bestowed on him. But, fiddle-de-dee! When shall we ever see a man resist the desire of possessing at once what he ought not to have until later? Nourjahad desires to be twenty-five years old, in order to marry his cousin; then thirty, in order to be sultan. Soon he desires to be a father, then to see his child grown up; then, being at war with his neighbors, he wants the decisive battle to come at once. In a word, that devil of a Nourjahad goes so fast, in the satisfaction of his desires, that he finds that he has grown thirty years older in a month; thereupon he curses the power that was placed in his hands, and Cheredin observes: 'My good friend, that is what all men would do, if they were enabled to make time move faster.'--And, touching Nourjahad with his wand, he restores his youth, and advises him to keep it as long as possible.--That is a very sensible preachment; but if, instead of making time move faster, one could make it go backward, ah! then we should look twice before doing it. A man goes through some such infernal quarter-hours in the course of his life, that he wouldn't like to repeat them." The waiter appeared, panting for breath, and cried: "I beg your pardon, monsieur, for being so long, but we didn't have the change for a hundred francs here, and I had to go a long way to get it. Lord! what a nuisance change is! Count it, monsieur." "And the time? Sacrebleu! tell me what time it is, will you?" "Oh! I didn't think to look, monsieur." "Then go and look now, villain! beast!" "Look first and see if the change is right." "I don't care a damn about my change. The time, you rascal, the time, at once!" Cherami pushed the waiter out of the room and impatiently awaited his return, muttering again: "Ah! how well I understand Nourjahad's feeling!"