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"I still had hoped to see thee and enjoy thy sight, * For in

thine absence life has lost its kindly light: I swear my vitals

wot none other love but thine * By Allah, who can read the

secrets of the sprite!"

Then she asked Ajib, "O my son! where hast thou been?"; and he

answered, "In Damascus-city;" Whereupon she rose and set before

him a bit of scone and a saucer of conserve of pomegranate-grains

(which was too little sweetened), and she said to the Eunuch,

"Sit down with thy master!" Said the servant to himself, "By

Allah, we have no mind to eat: I cannot bear the smell of bread;"

but he sat down and so did Ajib, though his stomach was full of

what he had eaten already and drunken. Nevertheless he took a bit

of the bread and dipped it in the pomegranate-conserve and made

shift to eat it, but he found it too little sweetened, for he was

cloyed and surfeited, so he said, "Faugh; what be this wild-beast

[FN#470] stuff?" "O my son," cried his grandmother, "dost thou

find fault with my cookery?