Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/294

264 a lover’s privacy; and he agreed to do her will, on condition that she would serve him with Hind and make shift to bring them together. Then he took her into a vintner’s shop, in one of the by-streets of Hireh, and lay with her; after which she returned to Hind and said to her, ‘Dost thou not long to see Adi?’ ‘How can this be?’ replied the princess. ‘Indeed my longing for him makes me restless, and no repose is left me since yesterday, on his account.’ Quoth Mariyeh, ‘I will appoint him to be in such a place, where thou canst look on him from the palace.’ ‘Do what thou wilt,’ replied Hind and agreed with her upon the place.

So Adi came, and the princess looked out upon him; and when she saw him, she was like to fall down from the top of the palace and said to Mariyeh, ‘Except thou bring him in to me this night, I shall die.’ So saying, she fell down in a swoon, and her serving-women lifted her up and bore her into the palace; whilst Mariyeh hastened to En Numan and discovered the whole matter to him, saying, ‘Verily, she is mad for love of Adi; and except thou marry her to him, she will be put to shame and die of love for him.’ The King bowed his head awhile in thought and exclaimed again and again, ‘Verily, we are God’s and to Him we return!’ Then said he, ‘Out on thee! How shall the marriage be brought about, seeing it misliketh me to open the matter to him?’ ‘He is yet more ardently in love and yet more desireful of her than she of him,’ answered Mariyeh; ‘and I will so order the matter that he shall be unaware that his case is known to thee; but do not betray thyself, O King.’

Them she went to Adi and said to him, ‘Make a feast and bid the King thereto; and when wine hath gotten the better of him, ask of him the hand of his daughter, for he will not refuse thee.’ Quoth Adi, ‘I fear lest this enrage him against me and be the cause of enmity between us.’