When he saw Gül-Bejáze on Halil's lap, and Halil's face beaming all over
with joy, he smote his hands together and fell a-wondering.

"There must be some great changes going on here!" thought he.

But Halil compelled him to sit down beside them, and after kissing
Gül-Bejáze again--apparently he could not kiss the girl enough--he
cried:

"Look! my dear neighbour! she is now my wife, and henceforth she will
love me as her husband, and I shall no longer be the slave of my slave.
And this worthy man here is my wife's father. Greet them, therefore, and
then be content to eat and drink with us!"

Then Musli approached Janaki and saluted him on the shoulder, then,
turning towards Gül-Bejáze, he touched with his hand first the earth and
next his forehead, sat down beside Janaki on the cushions that had been
drawn into the middle of the room, and made merry with them.

And now Janaki sent the slave he had brought with him to the
pastry-cook's while Musli skipped homewards and brought with him a
tambourine of chased silver, which he could beat right cunningly and
also accompany it with a voice not without feeling; and thus Halil's
bridal evening flowed pleasantly away with an accompaniment of wine and
music and kisses.

And all this time the worthy Berber-Bashi was looking on at this
junketing through the trellised window, and could scarce restrain
himself from giving expression to his astonishment when he perceived
that Gül-Bejáze no longer collapsed like a dead thing at the contact of