Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 3.djvu/295

269 so none may taunt him with this affair. So, as thou art a stranger, come with us and we will marry thee to her; thou shalt lie with her to-night and on the morrow divorce her, and we will give thee what I said.’ ‘By Allah,’ quoth Alaeddin to himself, ‘it were better to pass the night with a bride on a bed in a house, than in the streets and vestibules!’ So he went with them to the Cadi, who, as soon as he saw Alaeddin, was moved to love of him and said to the old man, ‘What is your will?’ Quoth he, ‘We wish to marry this young man to my daughter, as an intermediary, and the contract is to be for ten thousand dinars, dowry precedent, for which he shall give us a bond. If he divorce her in the morning, we will give him a thousand dinars and a mule and dress worth other two thousand; but if he divorce her not, he shall pay down the ten thousand dinars, according to the bond.’ The Cadi drew up the marriage contract to this effect and the lady’s father took a bond for the dowry. Then he took Alaeddin and clothing him anew, carried him to his daughter’s house, where he left him at the door, whilst he himself went in to the young lady and gave her the bond, saying, ‘Take the bond of thy dowry, for I have married thee to a handsome youth by name Alaeddin Abou esh Shamat; so do thou use him with all consideration.’ Then he left her and went to his own lodging. Now the lady’s cousin had an old waiting-woman, to whom he had done many a kindness and who used to visit Zubeideh; so he said to her, ‘O my mother, if my cousin Zubeideh see this handsome young man, she will never after accept of me; so I would fain have thee contrive to keep them apart.’ ‘By thy youth,’ answered she, ‘I will not suffer him to approach her!’ Then she went to Alaeddin and said to him, ‘O my son, I have a warning to give thee, for the love of God the Most High, and do thou follow my advice, for I fear for thee from this damsel: let her lie alone and handle her