Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/18

6 Mesrour, who entered into discourse with her and presently said to her, ‘O Huboub, hath thy mistress a husband or not?’ ‘She hath a husband,’ answered the damsel; ‘but he is presently abroad on a journey with merchandise of his.’

When he heard that her husband was abroad on a journey, his heart lusted after her and he said, ‘O Huboub, extolled be the perfection of Him who created this damsel and fashioned her! How sweet is her beauty and her grace and her shape and symmetry! Verily, my heart is in sore travail for her. O Huboub, [look] how I may come to enjoy her, and thou shalt have of me what thou wilt of money and what not else.’ ‘O Nazarene,’ answered Huboub, ‘if she heard thee speak thus, she would kill thee, or else she would kill herself, for she is the daughter of a champion of the Jews nor is there her like amongst them. Moreover, she hath no need of money and keepeth herself still cloistered, discovering not her case to any.’ Quoth Mesrour, ‘O Huboub, an thou wilt but bring me to enjoy her, I will be thy slave and thy servant and will serve thee all my life and give thee whatsoever thou seekest of me.’

But she said, ‘O Mesrour, this woman hath no desire for money nor yet for men, for my lady Zein el Mewasif is straitly cloistered, going not forth of the door of her house, lest the folk see her; and but that she forbore thee by reason of thy strangerhood, she had not suffered thee to pass her threshold; no, not though thou wert her brother.’ ‘O Huboub,’ rejoined he, ‘be thou our go-between and thou shalt have of me an hundred gold dinars and a dress worth as much more, for that the love of her hath gotten possession of my heart.’ And she said, ‘O man, let me go about with her in talk and I will return thee an answer and acquaint thee with what she saith.