Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/27

15 Then they fell a-playing again; but she still beat him and he could not beat her once; and on this wise they abode three days, till she had gotten of him all his money: whereupon, ‘O Mesrour,’ said she, ‘what wilt thou do now?’ And he answered, ‘I will stake thee a druggist’s shop.’ ‘What is its worth?’ asked she; and he replied, ‘Five hundred dinars.’ So they played and she won the shop of him in five bouts. Then he staked slave-girls and lands and houses and gardens, and she won them all, till she had gotten of him all he had; whereupon she turned to him and said, ‘Hast thou aught left to stake?’ ‘By Him who made me fall into the snare of thy love,’ answered he, ‘I have neither money nor aught else left, little or much!’ ‘O Mesrour,’ said she, ‘the end of that whose beginning was contentment shall not be repentance; wherefore, if thou repent thee, take back thy good and begone from us, and I will hold thee quit towards me.’ ‘By Him who decreed these things to us,’ replied Mesrour, ‘though thou soughtest to take my life, it were a little thing, compared to thine approof, for I love none but thee!’

Then said she, ‘Go and fetch the Cadi and the witnesses and make over to me by deed all thy lands and possessions.’ ‘Willingly,’ replied he and going out forthright, returned with the Cadi and the witnesses. When the magistrate saw her, his reason fled and his mind was troubled by reason of the beauty of her fingers, and he said to her, ‘O my lady, I will not draw up the deed of conveyance, save upon condition that thou purchase the lands and houses and slave-girls and that they all pass under thy control and into thy possession.’ ‘We are agreed upon that,’ replied she; ‘write me a deed, whereby all Mesrour’s houses and lands and slave-girls and all his hand possesseth shall pass to Zein el Mewasif and become her property at such a price.’ So he wrote out the deed