Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/257

225 Who came forth to visit me, shrouding himself in the cloak of the night, And hastened his steps, as he wended, for caution and fear and affright! Then rose I and laid in his pathway my cheek, as a carpet it were, For abjection, and trailed o’er my traces my skirts, to efface them from sight. But, lo, the new moon rose and shone, like a nailparing cleft from the nail, And all but discovered our loves with the gleam of her meddlesome light; And then there betideth between us what I’ll not discover, i’ faith; So question no more of the matter and deem not of ill or unright.

And gifted of God is he who saith:

And how goodly is the saying of the poet:

And that of another:

And yet another:

And he ceased not to incite him to drink, naming to

VOL. IX.