Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/91

79 She was like the moon, when it appears on its fourteenth night, and was clad in a garment of blue, with a veil of green, over a flower-white forehead, that amazed all wits and confounded those of understanding. And indeed she was possessed of the utmost grace and beauty and symmetry, as it were she of whom the poet would speak when he saith:

And how goodly is the saying of another and how excellent!

Then said the gardener to her, ‘O lady of fair ones and mistress of every shining star, know that we sought not, in bringing thee hither, but that thou shouldst entertain this comely youth here, my lord Noureddin, for he hath only come to this place this day.’ And she answered, saying, ‘Would thou hadst told me, that I might have brought what I have with me!’ ‘O my lady,’ rejoined the gardener, ‘I will go and fetch it to thee.’ ‘As thou wilt,’ replied she: and he said, ‘Give me a token.’ So she gave him a handkerchief and he went away in haste and