Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/270

242 said to herself, ‘Where shall I carry the young merchant and the lady, that I may strip them?’

Then she walked on and Khatoun after her, followed by the young merchant, till she came to a dyery, kept by a master-dyer, by name Hajj Mohammed, a man of ill repute, cutting male and female, like the colocasia-seller’s knife, and loving to eat both figs and pomegranates. He heard the tinkle of the ankle-rings and raising his head, saw the lady and the young man. Presently the old woman came up to him and said, ‘Art thou not Hajj Mohammed?’ ‘Yes,’ answered he. ‘What dost thou want?’ Quoth she, ‘Folk of repute have directed me to thee. Look at yonder handsome girl, who is my daughter, and that comely beardless youth, who is my son. I brought them both up and spent much money on them. Now I have an old ruinous house, which I have shored up with wood, and the builder says to me, “Go and live in some other place, till this be repaired, lest perchance it fall upon thee.” So I went forth to seek me a lodging, and people of worth directed me to thee, and I wish to lodge my son and daughter with thee.’ Quoth the dyer in himself, ‘Verily, here is fresh butter upon muffins come to me.’ But he said to the old woman, ‘True is it I have a house and saloon and upper chamber; but I cannot spare any part thereof, for I want it all for guests and for the indigo-growers [who come to me from time to time].’ ‘O my son,’ answered she, ‘it will but be for a month or two at the most, till our house be repaired, and we are strangers. Let the guest-chamber be shared between us and thee, and if thou desire that thy guests be ours, we will welcome them