Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/333

307 thought to make his living, but it was broken, and this was the cause of his distress. So she called one of her attendants and said to him, “Give this poor man what is with thee.” And he gave my brother a purse in which he found five hundred dinars, whereupon he was like to die for excess of joy and called down blessings on her. Then he returned to his house, a rich man; and as he sat considering, some one knocked at the door. So he rose and opened and saw an old woman whom he knew not. “O my son,” said she, “the time of prayer is at hand, and I have not yet made the ablution; so I beg thee to let me do so in thy house.” “I hear and obey,” replied he, and bade her come in. So she entered and he brought her an ewer, wherewith to wash, and sat down, beside himself for joy in the dinars. When she had made an end of her ablutions, she came up to where he sat and prayed a two-bow prayer, after which she offered up a goodly prayer for my brother, who thanked her and putting his hand to the bag of money, gave her two dinars, saying in himself, “This is an alms from me.” “Glory to God!” exclaimed she. “Why dost thou look on one, who loves thee, as if she were a beggar? Put up thy money! I have no need of it; or if thou want it not, return it to her who gave it thee, when thy glass was broken.” “O my mother,” asked he, “how shall I do to come at her?” “O my son,” replied she, “she hath an inclination for thee, but she is the wife of a wealthy man of the city; so take all thy money with thee and follow me, that I may guide thee to thy desire: and when thou art in company with her, spare neither fair words nor persuasion, and thou shalt enjoy her beauty and her wealth to thy heart’s content.” So my brother took all his money and rose and followed the old woman, hardly believing in his good fortune. She led him on till they came to the door of a great house, at which she knocked, and a Greek slave-girl came out and opened to