Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/196

174 knowest thou?’ ‘O my lady,’ answered she, ‘I have a dress of feathers, which if I put on before thee, thou wouldst see one of the fairest of fashions and marvel thereat, and all who saw it would talk of its goodliness, generation after generation.’ ‘And where is this dress of thine?’ asked Zubeideh. ‘It is with my husband’s mother,’ replied the damsel. ‘Do thou seek it of her for me.’

So Zubeideh said to the old woman, ‘My life on thee, O my mother, go and fetch us her feather-dress, that we may divert ourselves by looking on what she will do, and after take it again.’ ‘O my lady,’ replied the old woman, ‘this damsel is a liar. Hast thou ever seen a woman with a dress of feathers? Indeed, this pertaineth but to birds.’ But the damsel said to Zubeideh, ‘As I live, O my lady, she hath a feather-dress of mine and it is in a chest, which is buried in such a store-closet in the house.’ So Zubeideh took from her neck a necklace of jewels, worth all the treasures of Chosroës and Cæsar, and gave it to the old woman, saying, ‘O my mother, I conjure thee by my life, take this necklace and go and fetch us this dress, that we may divert ourselves with the sight thereof, and after take it again!’ But she swore to her that she had never seen the dress and knew not what the damsel meant by her speech.

Then Zubeideh cried out at her and taking the key from her, called Mesrour and said to him, ‘Take this key and go to the house and enter such a store-closet there, amiddleward which thou wilt find a chest buried. Take it and break it open and bring me the feather-dress that is therein.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered he and went forth, whereupon the old woman arose and followed him, weeping and repenting her of having given ear to the damsel and gone to the bath with her, for her desire to go thither was but a trick. So she went with him to the house and