Then with her faithful attendant she went cautiously forth, and together they threaded their way over the desolate sand and through the grove of palms; but she stayed not to gather the lilies blooming around her feet— she waited not to catch the breath of the roses, or to drink of the tiny stream, whose life-giving waves had made this little oasis to bloom like a garden in the midst of the desert. But she hastened on her way, and the boy ran by her side wondering why she sped so quickly through the grove. On, beyond its cooling shade and over the barren steepes, she pressed with unfaltering feet until she saw the haggard form of her lover; then she stepped gently to his side and laid her hand upon his arm. “Ah! Majnūn, it is thy Lailī that has come;” his mind awoke with one glad cry, for the familiar voice with its caressing tones rang with the notes of peace and joy through the darkened chambers of his brain. For one glad moment he held her in his arms, and then, overcome with emotion, he fainted at her feet. She quickly knelt beside him, and then “His head which in the dust was laid Upon her lap she drew, and dried His tears with tender hand and pressed Him close and closer to her breast; ‘Be here thy home beloved, adored, Revive, be blest;—oh! Lailī’s lord.’ At last he breathed, around he gazed, As from her arms his head he raised— ‘Art thou,’ he faintly said, ‘a friend Who takes me to her gentle breast— Dost thou in truth so fondly bend Thine eyes upon a wretch distressed? Are these thy unveiled cheeks I see Can bliss be yet in store for me? I thought it all a dream, so oft Such dreams come in my madness now. Is this thy hand so fair and soft? Is this in sooth my Lailī’s brow? In sleep these transports I may share But when I wake ’tis all despair! Let me gaze on thee—e’en though it be An empty shade alone I see; How shall I bear what once I bore When thou shalt vanish as before?’” Then the beauteous vision rested within his arms, with her dark ringlets flowing around her smooth neck, and the sweet confession of her love beaming in her tremulous eyes. He saw her chin of dimpled sweetness, and the soft cheek with its crimson flush, then her matchless voice came again to his ears with its message of tenderness.