Page:Sinbad the sailor & other stories from the Arabian nights.djvu/316

 told her story to the Lady Zubeydeh, who laughed heartily and bade her tell it to the Khalifeh. On hearing it the Khalifeh paused and pondered, but Mesrur cried, "Thou liest, hag! I myself saw Nuzhet-el-Fuad lying dead and Abu-I-Hasan alive."

"It is thou that liest!" retorted the old woman, "and thou hast a reason." And Mesrur would have laid his hands upon her, but Zubeydeh interposed, weeping; whereupon the Khalifeh said, "Nay, nay; it seems we are all liars, and methinks the proper course is that we all go together to the house of Abu-I-Hasan and so see who lieth truly and who lieth falsely." So all four went forth disputing and laying wager on wager as they went.

Now, Abu-I-Hasan, who had said within himself, "The matter cannot end here," had seated himself at the window to watch; and, when he saw the four approaching, he turned to his wife and remarked wisely, "O Nuzhet-el-Fuad! Verily, all is not a pancake that is slippery, and the pitcher that goes often to the fountain will one day be broken. Mesrur and the old woman have brewed trouble with their different tales. See! here come the Khalifeh and his messenger, and the Lady Zubeydeh and her messenger; and they are contending and disputing among themselves. Now, to save our reputation for veracity, we must both be dead."

With great haste they laid themselves out, and, before the babel of contention reached the house, they were lying side by side prepared for burial, and like nothing so much as the silence of the grave. And thus the Khalifeh, and Zubeydeh, and Mesrur, and the old woman, found them when they entered. "Alas!" cried the Lady Zubeydeh, turning to the Khalifeh and Mesrur, "by your repeated tales 220