Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 3.djvu/93

75 rejoined Ali, ‘and how wilt thou do with her, when she takes umbrage like a wilding of the desert?’ ‘By Allah,’ exclaimed the jeweller, ‘needs must I do my utmost endeavour to help thee and contrive to make her acquaintance, without exposure or mischief!’ Then he asked leave to depart, and Ali said, ‘O my brother, see thou keep my counsel.’ And he looked at him and wept. The jeweller bade him farewell and went away, knowing not what he should do to further his wishes; but as he went along pondering the matter, he spied a letter lying in the road, and taking it up, found that it bore the following superscription, ‘From the least worthy of lovers to the most excellent of beloved ones.’ He opened it and found these words written therein:

To proceed: Know, O my lord, that I am ignorant of the cause of the breaking off of the correspondence between thee and me: but if it arise from cruelty on thy part, I will meet it with fidelity, and if love have departed from thee, I will remain constant to my love in absence for I am with thee even as says the poet:

As he was reading, up came the slave-girl, looking right and left, and seeing the letter in the jeweller’s hand, said to him, ‘O my lord, this letter is one I let fall.’ He made her no answer, but walked on, and she followed him, till he came to his house, when he entered and she after him, saying, ‘O my lord, give me back the letter, for it fell from me.’ He turned to her and said, ‘O good slave-girl, fear not, neither grieve, for verily God the Protector loves