Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/317

282 Then he folded the letter and gave it to the old woman, saying, ‘Grudge it not to me, though I have wearied thee to no purpose.’ And he bade Aziz give her other thousand dinars, saying, ‘O my mother, needs must this letter result in perfect union or complete separation.’ ‘O my son,’ replied she, ‘by Allah, I desire nought but thy weal; and it is my wish that she be thine, for indeed thou art the resplendent moon and she the rising sun. If I do not bring you together, there is no profit in my life: these ninety years have I lived in the practice of wile and intrigue; so how should I fail to unite two lovers, though in defiance of law?’ Then she took leave of him, after comforting his heart, and returned to the palace. Now she had hidden the letter in her hair: so she sat down by the princess and rubbing her head, said, ‘O my lady, maybe thou wilt comb out my hair: for it is long since I went to the bath.’ The princess bared her arms to the elbow and letting down the old woman’s hair, began to comb it, when out dropped the letter and Dunya seeing it, asked what it was. Quoth the nurse, ‘This paper must have stuck to me, as I sat in the merchant’s shop: give it me, that I may return it to him; belike it contains some reckoning of which he hath need.’ But the princess opened it, and reading it, cried out, ‘This is one of thy tricks, and hadst thou not reared me, I would lay violent hands on thee forthright! Verily God hath afflicted me with this merchant: but all that hath befallen me with him is of thy contrivance. I know not whence this fellow can have come: none but he would venture to affront me thus, and I fear lest this my case get wind, the more that it concerns one who is neither of my rank nor of my peers.’ ‘None would dare speak of this,’ rejoined the old woman, ‘for fear of thine anger and awe of thy father; so there can be no harm in sending him an answer.’ ‘O my nurse,’ said the princess, ‘verily this fellow is a devil. How can he dare