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She hath brought me five thousand dirhams, and hath taken goods

for a thousand dinars."[FN#557] I feared lest I should be

beggared through having to pay the merchants their money, and I

said, "They know none other but me; this lovely lady is naught

but a cheat and a swindler, who hath diddled me with her beauty

and grace; for she saw that I was a mere youth and laughed at me

for not asking her address." I ceased not to be troubled by these

doubts and fears, as she was absent more than a month, till the

merchants pestered me for their money and were so hard upon me

that I put up my property for sale and stood on the very brink of

ruin. However, as I was sitting in my shop one day, drowned in

melancholy musings, she suddenly rode up and, dismounting at the

bazar gate, came straight towards me. When I saw her all my cares

fell from me and I forgot every trouble.