Dorani

The same things happened again as had happened before, but Dorani sang better than ever. In the morning the prince a second time told Dorani all that she had done, pretending that he had dreamt of it. Directly after he had finished Dorani gazed at him and said, "Is it true that you dreamt this, or were you really there?"

"I was there," answered the prince.

"But why do you follow me?" asked the girl.

"Because," replied the prince, "I love you, and to be with you is happiness."

This time Dorani's eyelids quivered but she said no more, and was silent the rest of the day. However, in the evening, just as she was stepping into her palanquin, she said to the prince, "If you do love me, prove it by not following me tonight."

And so the prince did as she wished, and stayed at home.

That evening the magic stool flew so unsteadily that they could hardly keep their seats, and at last the fairy exclaimed, "There is only one reason that it should jerk like this! You must have been talking to your husband!"

And Dorani replied, "Yes, I have spoken!" But no more would she say.

That night Dorani sang so marvelously that at the end the rajah Indra rose up and vowed that she might ask what she would and he would give it to her. At first she was silent; but, when he pressed her, she said, "If you insist, then I request the magic lute."

The rajah, when he heard this, was displeased with himself for having made so rash a promise, because he valued the magic lute that played by itself above all his possessions. But as he had promised, so he must perform.

"You must never come back again," he said roughly, "for, once having asked so much, how will you in the future be content with smaller gifts?"

Dorani bowed her head silently as she took the lute, and passed with the fairy out of the great gate, where the stool awaited them.