Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/30

18 she; and he answered, ‘How many a promise is unkept of its maker! Fine words needs must be in love-matters.’ When she heard this, she said to him, ‘O Mesrour, be of good heart and cheerful eye, for, by Allah, I will be the means of thy coming to enjoy her!’ Then she left him and returned, weeping sore, to her mistress, to whom said she, ‘O my lady, indeed he is a man of great consideration, well-reputed among the folk.’ Quoth Zein el Mewasif, ‘There is no resource against the ordinance of the Most High! Verily, this man found not in me a compassionate heart, for that I spoiled him of his substance and he got of me neither affection nor complaisance in granting him the amorous mercy; but, if I incline to his desire, I fear lest the thing be bruited abroad.’ ‘O my lady,’ answered Huboub, ‘verily, his present plight and the loss of his good is grievous upon us, and thou hast with thee none but myself and thy slave-girl Sukoub; so which of us two would dare prate of thee, and we thy hand-maids?’

With this, she bowed her head and the damsels said to her, ‘O my lady, it is our counsel that thou send after him and show him favour and suffer him not ask of the sordid; for how bitter is asking!’ So she accepted their counsel and calling for inkhorn and paper, wrote him the following verses:

Fulfilment draws near, O Mesrour: rejoice in fair presage and true, For, to-night, when the darkness falls down, the deed without fail thou shalt do; And ask not the sordid, O youth, for money to mend thine estate: Indeed, I was drunken, but now my wit is restored me anew. Moreover, thy good that I took shall all unto thee be restored, And to crown, O Mesrour, my largesse, I’ll add thee my favours thereto; Since patience thou hadst and in the long-suffering and sweetness there was With a loved one’s unkindness to bear, who wronged thee with rigours undue.