Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/305

281 sayest to me what is not true and hidest thy mind from me; but I know that this is so and am certain of it, and I only seek to help thee this day.’ I was fearful lest my people or the neighbours should hear the barber’s talk, so kept silence, whilst he finished shaving my head; by which time the hour of prayer was come and it was well-nigh time for the exhortation. When he had done, I said to him, ‘Take the meat and drink and carry them to thy friends. I will await thy return.’ For I thought it best to dissemble with the accursed fellow and feign compliance with his wishes, so haply he might go away and leave me. Quoth he, ‘Thou art deceiving me and wilt go alone and cast thyself into some peril, from which there will be no escape for thee. For God’s sake, do not go till I return, that I may accompany thee and see what comes of thine affair.’ ‘It is well,’ answered I: ‘do not be long absent.’ Then he took all that I had given him and went out; but, instead of going home with it, the cursed fellow delivered it to a porter, to carry to his house, and hid himself in a by-street. As for me, I rose at once, for the Muezzins had already chanted the Salutation, and, dressing myself in haste, went out and hurried to the house where I had seen the young lady. I found the old woman standing at the door, awaiting me, and went up with her to the young lady’s apartment. Hardly had I done so, when the master of the house returned from the mosque and entering the saloon, shut the door. I looked out from the window and saw this barber (God’s malison on him!) sitting over against the door, and said, ‘How did this devil find me out?’ At this moment, as God had decreed it for my undoing, it befell that a slave-girl belonging to the master of the house committed some offence, for