Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/126

114 this? If thou love her, thou hast had thy fill of her all this time: so take the money and buy another handsomer than she; or we will marry thee to one of our daughters, lovelier than she, at a dowry of less than half this price, and the rest of the money will remain in thy hand as capital.’ And they ceased not to ply him with persuasion and argument till he took the ten thousand dinars, the price of the damsel, and the Frank straightway fetched Cadis and witnesses, who drew up the contract of sale.

Meanwhile, Meryem sat awaiting Noureddin from morning till sundown and from sundown till midnight; and when he returned not, she was troubled and wept sore. The druggist heard her weeping and sent his wife to her, who went in to her and finding her in tears, said to her, ‘O my lady, what ails thee to weep?’ ‘O my mother,’ answered she, ‘I have sat awaiting my lord Noureddin all day; but he cometh not, and I fear lest some one have put a cheat on him, to make him sell me, and he have fallen into the snare and sold me.’ ‘O my lady Meryem,’ [sic] rejoined the druggist’s wife, ‘were they to give thy lord this room full of gold to thy price, yet would he not sell thee, for what I know of his love to thee. Belike there be folk come from his parents at Cairo and he hath made them an entertainment in their lodging, being ashamed to bring them hither, for that the place is overstrait for them or maybe their condition is less than that he should bring them to his own house; or belike he preferred to conceal thine affair from them, so passed the night with them; and if it be the will of God the Most High, to-morrow he will come to thee, safe and well. So burden not thy soul with care nor anxiety, O my lady, for of a certainty this is the cause of his absence from thee and I will abide with thee this night and comfort thee, till thy lord return.’