Page:The Garden of Romance - 1897.djvu/15

Rh where he can never again offend my sight." In saying this, he was going to leave us, but the master of the house still detained him, and entreated him to relate to us the cause of the aversion he had against the barber, who all this time kept his eyes fixed on the ground, and was silent. We joined our entreaties to those of the master of the house, and at last the young man, yielding to our wishes, seated himself on the sofa, and began his history in these words, having first turned his back towards the barber, lest he should see him:

"My father, who lived in Bagdad, was of a rank to aspire to the highest offices of state, but he preferred leading a quiet and tranquil life to all the honours he might deserve. I was his only child, and when he died I had completed my education, and was of an age to dispose of the large possessions he had bequeathed me. I did not dissipate them in folly, but made such use of them as procured me the esteem of every one.

"I had not yet felt any tender passion, and far from being at all sensible to love, I will confess, perhaps to my shame, that I carefully avoided the society of women. One day, as I was walking in a street, I saw a great number of ladies coming towards me; in order to avoid them, I turned into a little street that was before me, and sat down on a bench that was placed near a door. I was opposite to a window where there was a number of very fine flowers, and my eyes were fixed on them, when the window opened, and a lady appeared, whose beauty dazzled me. She cast her eyes on me, and watering the flowers with a hand whiter than alabaster, she looked at me with a smile, which inspired me with as much love for her as I had hitherto felt aversion towards