Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/103

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As I looked at her through the opening of the curtains, she turned and seeing me standing at the door, said to her maid, “See who stands at the door.” So the maid came up to me and said, “O old man, hast thou no shame, or do gray hairs and impudence go together?” “O my mistress,” answered I, “I confess to the gray hairs, but as for unmannerliness, I think not to be guilty of it.” “And what can be more unmannerly,” rejoined her mistress, “than to intrude thyself upon a house other than thy house and gaze on a harem other than thy harem?” “O my lady,” said I, “I have an excuse.” “And what is thine excuse?” asked she. Quoth I, “I am a stranger and well-nigh dead of thirst.” “We accept thine excuse,” answered she and calling one of her maids, said to her, “O Lutf, give him to drink in the golden tankard.”

So she brought me a tankard of red gold, set with pearls and jewels, full of water mingled with odoriferous musk and covered with a napkin of green silk; and I addressed myself to drink and was long about it, casting stolen glances at her the while, till I could prolong it no longer. Then I returned the tankard to the maid, but did not offer to go; and she said to me, “O old man, go thy way.” “O my lady,” replied I, “I am troubled in mind.” “For what?” asked she; and I answered, “For the uncertainty of fortune and the vicissitudes of events.” “Well mayst thou be troubled thereanent,” replied she, “for Time is the mother of wonders. But what hast thou seen of them that thou shouldst muse upon?” Quoth I, “I was