"Youssouf!" cries she, in tones of anguish--"Youssouf! Oh, stay with me, do not leave me!"

In response to her call, he opens his eyes and gives her a tender look.

"Yes, Sitta Nefysseh, I shall remain with you throughout all time, throughout eternity, for love is eternal."

His lips are hushed, but his eyes still gaze up at her, for a moment, with the lustre of life; then they grow dim and cold, and slowly the veil of death sinks down over his countenance. The lips that but now spoke the words, "I love you," are hushed forever!

Bowed down over him, her eyes axed intently on the features from which the last traces of life are vanishing, she sees the kiss that Death has imprinted on his lips; and the last smile slowly fade from his countenance.

And again she neither weeps nor laments; she only tears the veil from her head with a wild, despairing movement, and lays it over the countenance of her beloved dead.

"Sleep, Youssouf, sleep beneath my veil! You are dead, and my happiness dies with you--I shall be a living monument to your memory! I shall live in poverty and solitude, Youssouf, and the treasures which you buried for me beneath the earth shall remain there, a subterranean monument to my love. They shall never see the light of day! You have buried my treasures, and I will bury my greatest, holiest treasure--you, Youssouf Bey; and with you Sitta Nefysseh buries her youth, her love, and her grandeur, to be henceforth only a poor widow, who lives in solitary retirement, a prey to sorrow. Sleep, Youssouf Bey! You will awake with me above, to an eternal life--sleep, Youssouf!"

She lifts the veil once more, and kisses the forehead, now cold as marble; she then replaces it softly, and leaves the room.