1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

164
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
which she did not yet understand. It was the dim consciousness that a
place that had been empty was being filled, and that by her, unobserved
by ever y one, even those most concerned perhaps, but that was no
matter.
She had found a new care – a new duty that was to fill the place that
her father and little sister had alwa ys occupied. But it was the first
dawn of something more than that; of the passion than which no
stronger or holier can animate a woman’s breast, the first dawn of an
unselfish, self-sacrificing lo ve, ready to give all, and to ask for nothing
in return.
But Gul Begum knew nothing of that; she would only sit and watch the
sky as she has watched the shadows on the Hazara hills, and dream and
dream, or rather let unformed dreams just filter through her brain, for
they left nothing behind, and an hour later had any one said, “What
were you thinking of as you watched the sky?” she could truthfully
have answered, “Nothing,” for she was conscious of nothing but a
feeling of rest, and hope, and trust, in something that was above and
beyond her.
And that hour at dawn was a time she was quite sure to get all to
herself. That was the hour in the twent y-four when All Kabul slept.
The Court often did not close till one, or even two or three, or even
later, but b y dawn the last straggler had almost alwa ys found his way
home; and when the Court slept the whole town slept, and when the
Court rose the whole town rose.
Clocks there were and plent y, and there was the bell that rang to warn
the workmen that it was time to assemble in the various factories. But
that was the foreigners’ signal, and that of the prisoners and workmen
who served the Government under them. It had nothing whatever to do
with the good townsfolk. It was only for ignorant villagers and tillers
of the soil to get up at daybreak, not for respectable, well-to-do
tradesmen and private gentlemen, and as for the officials, it was their
only time of repose, this time while the Ameer slept, so that throughout
the cit y every sound was stilled until the cocks and the wild dogs
awoke to the consciousness that day had dawned, and that it was time
for them to try and wake to world, even if the world choose not to be
awakened by them.