Page:Princess Badoura, a tale from the Arabian nights.djvu/68

50 All her women came running; and her nurse, who was the chief, inquired what misfortune had befallen her. The Princess, who continued to search among the bedclothes, said, 'Vexatious and contrary old woman, what have you done with the beautiful youth who slept last night in my bosom, or how comes it that I have mislaid him?'

At these words the nurse was shocked in her morals and confounded in her understanding, and she answered, 'O mistress, what mean these disgraceful words! Surely thy bosom is guiltless of any such deed, and no youth, whether beautiful or otherwise, has been near thee.'

Badoura answered, 'He had black eyes and a lovely face, and a mouth like the seal of Solomon, and his eyebrows were joined where I kissed them; and he was here sleeping at my side from nightfall to nigh upon daybreak.'

'Princess,' answered her nurse, 'thou hast had an unpermissible dream and art talking non-