Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/370

340 leave of them and returning to the garden, presented himself before the princess, with a face the colour of turmeric and scarce able to stand upright. The old woman remarked his plight and hastened to forestall him, saying, ‘O old man, kiss the earth in gratitude to God the Most High and be instant in prayer to Him for the princess; for I told her what thou didst in the matter of repairing the ruined pavilion, and she rejoiceth in this and bestoweth on thee two thousand dinars in requital of thy pains; so take them from the purse-keeper and kiss the earth before the princess and bless her and go thy way.’ So he took the money and kissed the earth before Heyat en Nufous, calling down blessings on her. Then he returned to his house, and his family rejoiced in him and blessed him who had been the [prime] cause of all this.

As soon as he was gone, the old woman said to the princess, ‘O my lady, this is indeed become a fine place! Never saw I a purer white than its plastering nor goodlier than its painting! I wonder if he have repaired the inside also: else hath he made the outside white and [left] the inside black. Come, let us enter and see.’ So they entered and found the interior painted and gilded in the goodliest fashion. The princess looked right and left, till she came to the upper end of the estrade, when she fixed her eyes upon the wall and gazed attentively thereat; whereupon the old woman knew that she had lighted on the presentment of her dream and took the two waiting-women with her, that they might not divert her attention. When the princess had made an end of examining the painting, she turned to the old woman, wondering and beating hand on hand, and said to her, ‘O my nurse, come and see a wonderful thing. Were it graven with needles on the corners of the eyes, it would serve as an admonition to him who will be admonished.’ ‘And what is that, O my lady?’