This cold fit Is but the harbinger of other fevers. RECHA. Cold—cold—I am not cold; but I observe not Less willingly what I behold with calmness. SCENE.—An Audience Room in the Sultan’s Palace. SITTAH: SALADIN _giving directions at the door_. SALADIN. Here, introduce the Jew, whene’er he comes— He seems in no great haste. SITTAH. May be at first He was not in the way. SALADIN. Ah, sister, sister! SITTAH. You seem as if a combat were impending. SALADIN. With weapons that I have not learnt to wield. Must I disguise myself? I use precautions? I lay a snare? When, where gained I that knowledge? And this, for what? To fish for money—money— For money from a Jew—and to such arts Must Saladin descend at last to come at The least of little things? SITTAH. Each little thing Despised too much finds methods of revenge. SALADIN. ’Tis but too true. And if this Jew should prove The fair good man, as once the dervis painted— SITTAH. Then difficulties cease. A snare concerns The avaricious, cautious, fearful Jew; And not the good wise man: for he is ours Without a snare. Then the delight of hearing How such a man speaks out; with what stern strength He tears the net, or with what prudent foresight He one by one undoes the tangled meshes; That will be all to boot— SALADIN. That I shall joy in. SITTAH. What then should trouble thee? For if he be One of the many only, a mere Jew, You will not blush to such a one to seem A man, as he thinks all mankind to be. One, that to him should bear a better aspect, Would seem a fool—a dupe. SALADIN. So that I must Act badly, lest the bad think badly of me. SITTAH. Yes, if you call it acting badly, brother, To use a thing after its kind. SALADIN. There’s nothing That woman’s wit invents it can’t embellish. SITTAH. Embellish— SALADIN. But their fine-wrought filligree In my rude hand would break. It is for those That can contrive them to employ such weapons: They ask a practised wrist. But chance what may, Well as I can— SITTAH.