Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/147

127 ‘May God bless thee and thy father,’ rejoined Ubeid, ‘and have mercy on the womb that bore thee and the loins that begat thee!’ Then he cut his thongs and betook himself to making ready for his journey. His father-in-law gave him much substance and they took leave of one another, after which Ubeid and his wife journeyed on without ceasing, till they reached Bassora, where his friends and kinsmen came out to meet him, doubting not but that he had been in the Hejaz. Some rejoiced at his return, whilst other some were vexed, and the folk said one to another, ‘Now will he straiten us again every Friday, as before, and we shall be shut up in the mosques and houses, even to our cats and dogs.’

When the King of Bassora heard of his return, he was wroth with him and sending for him, chid him and said to him, ‘Why didst thou depart, without letting me know? Was I unable to give thee somewhat wherewith thou mightest have succoured thyself in thy pilgrimage to the Holy House of God?’ ‘Pardon, O my lord!’ replied the jeweller. ‘By Allah, I went not on the pilgrimage! But there have befallen me such and such things.’ And he told him all that had befallen him with his wife and with the merchant Abdurrehman of Cairo and how the latter had given him his daughter to wife and he had brought her to Bassora. ‘By Allah,’ said the king, ‘did I not fear God the Most High, I would slay thee and marry this noble lady after thy death, though I spent treasuries of money on her, for that she befitteth none but kings. But God hath appointed her of thy portion and may He bless thee in her! So look thou use her well.’ Then he bestowed largesse on the jeweller, who went out from before him and abode with his wife five years, after which he was admitted to the mercy of God the Most High.

The king sought his widow in marriage; but she