Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/109

85 on the floor, said to thee, ‘O Ibn Mensour, ask me anything but what relates to the writer of this letter; for I have no reply to make to her.’ Then didst thou rise from beside him in anger; but he laid hold of thy skirts, saying, ‘Abide with me to-day, for thou art my guest, and eat and drink and make merry; and thou shalt have five hundred dinars.’ So thou didst sit with him, eating and drinking and making merry, and entertainedst him with converse; and a slave-girl sand such an air and such verses, whereupon he fell down in a swoon.” Quoth I, “Wast thou then with us?” “O Ibn Mensour,” replied she, “hast thou not heard the saying of the poet:

But,” added she, “day and night alternate not upon aught, but they change it.” Then she raised her eyes to heaven and said, “O my God and my Master and my Lord, like as Thou hast afflicted me with love of Jubeir ben Umeir, even so do Thou afflict him with love of me and transfer the passion from my heart to his!” Then she gave me a hundred dinars for my pains and I took it and returned to the palace, when I found the Sultan come back from hunting; so I took my pension of him and made my way back to Baghdad.

Next year, I repaired to Bassora, as usual, to seek my pension, and the Sultan paid it to me; but as I was about to return to Baghdad, I bethought me of the lady Budour and said to myself, “By Allah, I must needs go and see what hath befallen between her and her lover!” So I went to her house and finding the porch swept and sprinkled and slaves and servants and pages standing before the door, said to myself, “Most like grief hath broken the lady’s heart and she is dead, and some Amir or other hath taken up his abode in her house.” So I went on to