Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/261

239 it.’ So I wrote him a docket to that effect and gave the piece of stuff to the lady, saying, ‘Take it and, if thou wilt, bring me the price next market-day; or, better still, accept it as a gift from me to thee.’ ‘May God requite thee with good,’ answered she, ‘and make thee my husband and master of my property!’ (And God heard her prayer.) ‘O my lady,’ replied I, ‘this piece of stuff is thine and another like it, if thou wilt but let me see thy face.’ So she lifted her veil, and I took one look at her face, that caused me a thousand regrets, and fell so violently in love with her, that I was no longer master of my reason. Then she let down her veil and taking the piece of stuff, said, ‘O my lord, leave me not desolate!’ and went away, whilst I remained sitting in the shop till the time of afternoon-prayer was past, lost to the world and fairly distraught for love; and the violence of my passion prompted me to make enquiries about her of the merchant, who replied, ‘She is a lady of wealth, the daughter of an Amir, who died and left her a large fortune.’ Then I took leave of him and returned to the Khan, where they set the evening-meal before me; but I could not eat, for thinking of her, and laid down to rest. But sleep came not to me and I lay awake till daylight, when I rose and changed my dress. I broke my fast on a cup of wine and a morsel of bread and going to the market, saluted Bedreddin and sat down by him in his shop. Presently up came the lady, followed by a slave-girl, and more richly dressed than before, and saluting me, instead of Bedreddin, said to me, in a voice than which I never heard a sweeter or softer, ‘Send with me some one to take the twelve hundred dirhems, the price of the stuff.’ ‘What hurry is there?’ asked I. And she said, ‘May we never lose thee!’ And gave me the money. Then I sat talking with her, and presently I made signs to her, by which she understood that I desired to