Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/274

252 passed thus, and the merchants sought their money of me, but I persuaded them to wait another week, at the end of which time she came up, riding on the mule and attended by an eunuch and two slaves. She saluted me and said, ‘O my lord, we have been long in bringing thee the price of the stuffs; but now fetch a money-changer and take the amount.’ So I sent for the money-changer, and the eunuch counted me out the money, and we sat talking, the lady and I, till the market opened, when she said to me, ‘Get me this and this.’ So I got her from the merchants what she wanted, and she took it and went away, without saying a word to me about the price. As soon as she was out of sight, I repented me of what I had done, for the price of what I had bought for her was a thousand dinars, and I said to myself, ‘What doting is this? She has brought me five thousand dirhems and taken a thousand dinars’ worth of goods.’ And I feared lest I should be beggared, through having to pay the merchants their money, and said, ‘They know none but me and this woman is none other than a cheat, who hath cozened me with her beauty and grace, for she saw that I was young and laughed at me; and I did not ask her address.’ She did not come again for more than a month, and I abode in constant distress and perplexity, till at last the merchants dunned me for their money and pressed me so that I put up my property for sale and looked for nothing but ruin. However, as I was sitting in my shop, one day, absorbed in melancholy thought, she rode up and dismounting at the gate of the bazaar, came in and made towards me. When I saw her, my anxiety ceased and I forgot my troubles. She came up to me and greeting me with her pleasant speech, said to me, ‘Fetch the money-changer and take thy money.’ So she gave me the price of the goods I had gotten for her