Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/235

213 Bedreddin Hassan standing at the door. It was near the time of afternoon-prayer, and as chance would have it, he had just prepared a mess of pomegranate-seed. Agib looked at him and saw the scar of the blow on his forehead; wherefore his heart yearned to him and he said, “Peace be on thee! Know that my heart is with thee.” When Bedreddin saw him, his bowels were troubled and his heart throbbed, and he bowed his head and would have spoken, but could not. Then he raised his head and looked at his son humbly and imploringly and repeated the following verses:

Then he said to them, “Heal my heart and eat of my food, for, by Allah, I cannot look at you but my heart throbs! I should not have followed you the other day, but that I was beside myself.” “By Allah,” replied Agib, “thou art too fond of us! We ate with thee before and thou madest us repent of it, in that thou followedst us and wouldst have put us to shame; so we will not eat with thee, except thou swear not to go out after us nor follow us. Else we will not visit thee again during our present stay, for we abide here a week, that my grandfather may take presents for the King.” And Bedreddin said, “I grant you this.” So Agib and the eunuch entered, and Bedreddin set before them a dish of pomegranate-seed. Quoth Agib, “Sit down and eat with us, so haply God may grant us relief.” At this Bedreddin was glad and sat down and ate with them, with his eyes fixed on Agib’s face, for indeed his heart and entrails were taken with his love, till the boy said to him, “What a tiresome dotard