Achmed Abdullah

Name: The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16
Author: Achmed Abdullah

The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

Summary

“The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16”, published in 1920, is a work by Achmed Abdullah. It explores elements such as tofanghees, Abderrahman Yahiah Khan and Aziza Nurmahal.

Quotes from The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (Achmed Abdullah)

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ For there in the crowd stood Abderrahman Yahiah Khan, a smile curling his thin lips—a smile that presently changed into a laugh.
The Arab, too, laughed.
“Ho, brother!” he shouted. “Ho, soul of my soul!”—and, without any more ado, they fell in each other's arms.
It was Babu Chandra who, talking to Gulabian that night, put it all in a nutshell.
“If the man be ugly,” he said, “what can the mirror do? If a man be a liar, how can we expect truth from him? But even an ugly man has his uses. Even a liar has his uses. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ This foreign girl of whom the Babu spoke—is she ...?”
Hector inclined his head without speaking. Dry eyed, vacant eyed, he stared at his feet.
“Cousin—cousin mine!”
Aziza Nurmahal did not say what she was going to say, perhaps did not know what she was going to say. She could not speak. Sympathy? To be sure, she felt sympathy with Hector. But she was too Oriental to attempt the impossible which a European would have tried: to grapple with another human's sentiments; to pronounce words of condolence or pity. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ Then she laughed.
“Hector,” she said, “I am surprised at you. This isn't the correct way to propose to a girl—nor exactly the correct place!”
“I don't care,” laughed Hector, “I'm never going to be correct again as long as I live!”—and he kissed her, very much to the delight of the old nurse who, remembering a lover of her youth, a Rajput with split beard and hooded eyes and a sprig of jessamine behind his ear who had drifted across the Himalayas into Central Asia, broke into a high-pitched Indian love song ”

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Source: Wikisource

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ His words, therefore, throbbed with bitterness as well as unfeigned, simon-pure moral shock.
“The fat—what didst thou say, Aziza Nurmahal—Afghan? Afghan indeed! He is an obese and indecent impostor! He is Musa Al-Mutasim, the renegade Arab who for years has made the western marches unsafe ...”
“Which thou knowest well, O grandson of abundant filth!” cut in the old nurse, wagging a grimy, threatening thumb. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ Thus, when words finally came to her, they were soberly practical and constructive.
“The Babu spoke of two Afghans, one lean and the other fat. It is a wise thing to draw out the thorn in one's foot with the thorn in one's hand.”
“What dost thou mean?” asked Hector.
“That we have one of the—ah—'Afghans' here. The lean one, who turned out to be a Tamerlani, by the name of Abderrahman Yahiah Khan. Let us ask him about his brother-rogue. Hey—Shikandar!” She turned to a servant. “Fetch me the governor of the western marches!” ”

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Source: Wikisource

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ For a moment, subconsciously, as much out of pity and love for the girl as pity for himself, he tried to force the conviction on his mind that the reality could not be half as bad, as appalling, as dreadfully anguishing, as the fantastic terrors of his imagination. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ He heard nothing, saw nothing except Jane; and, forgetting the crowd that watched curiously from the gate, forgetting the princess, the nurse, the Arab, and Mr. Ezra Warburton, he rushed up to her and took her in his arms. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Achmed Abdullah, The Mating of the Blades — Chapter 16 (1920)

“ Command me—”
“To do what?” asked the princess.
“To bring peace to the western marches that—alas!— too long have been torn by strife and turmoil and”—he said it quite naïvely—“the plundering of the caravans. Say the word, and I myself shall see to it that the armed men under my command join thy service. As to Higgins saheb and the other saheb, the easiest way would be to kill them. For a dead horse does not eat grass, and a dead saheb does not ask for 'concessions.'”
“What about Abderrahman Yahiah Khan?” demanded Hector, with a twinkle in his eye.
“He is a scoundrel,” said the Arab. ”

Achmed Abdullah

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