At that moment the tropic sun arose, and in its rays he beheld the face of the tormentor shine with an equable and golden splendour. The eyes, no longer lacking pupils, possessed sight, and from the smile had vanished all that he detested. VI. A new porter, a garrulous and slipshod wastrel, had taken the place of the old. It appeared that nowadays the Princess had but few visitors despite the fact that she was acknowledged almost as beautiful as ever, albeit in a different style. Her temperament, he learned, was difficult, her wealth greater than ever. After but short delay he found himself in the antechamber. He acquainted the damsel with his mission. She vanished through the curtains, and the following conversation was borne to Es-siddeeh's ears: "An old man, calling himself the Very Veracious, has arrived and sues for an interview on the same subject as his forerunners." "I cannot see him." The maid returned. "Tell her," said Es-siddeeh, "that she is as beautiful as one red rose in a garden of lilies." "The compliment," he heard the Princess remark, "though graceful, is not new; in fact so old that I scarcely distinctly recollect when I made a fashion for it. Dismiss him." "Tell her," said Es-siddeeh, "that her wisdom has the wings of the rukh, the eye of the falcon, the talons of the osprey, and the voice of the dove." "The Very Veracious," he heard the Princess remark, "is there very much in the wrong. If I have learned nothing else in my life I have at least learned that my wisdom has no such enviable characteristics. Dismiss him." "Tell her," said Es-siddeeh, suddenly overcome with a novel misgiving, "that I know the answer to all secrets, including the secret of the smile of the Sphinx." "How original!" cried the Princess. "Does he really know the secret of the Sphinx's smile? Send him in." Es-siddeeh went in and bowed down. "Though changed," he said, "O Sa-adeh, you are as beautiful as ever." "Your beard has grown so long and so white," she answered, "that--surely thou _art_ the (what is the name?) the Es-siddeeh I once knew, are you not?" "I am." "And you know all secrets?" "I do." Then she plied him with various questions concerning the value as an amulet of this or that precious stone, of the pedigree of famous horses, of music as an Emotional Sound or as an Architecture, and many other matters of a similar nature. All these questions he answered with such a considerable wealth of detail that Sa-adeh appeared confused. Both fell silent. After her eyes had rested for some time upon his face in a musing fashion, she asked with a strange inflection, "What is love?" He was dumbfounded. "I believe you have forgotten," she said, and in the intonation of her voice there was a hint of the equivocal. His eyes filled with tears. "I have not forgotten," he said; "perhaps I am only just beginning to learn."