arose and going forth from their place to the bazar opened their
shop, which their servants had already furnished, after the
handsomest fashion, and had spread with prayer rugs and silken
carpets and had placed on the divans a pair of mattresses, each
worth an hundred dinars. On every mattress they had disposed a
rug of skin fit for a King and edged with a fringe of gold; and
a-middlemost the shop stood a third seat still richer, even as
the place required. Then Taj al-Muluk sat down on one divan, and
Aziz on another, whilst the Wazir seated himself on that in the
centre, and the servants stood before them. The city people soon
heard of them and crowded about them, so that they sold some of
their goods and not a few of their stuffs; for Taj al-Muluk's
beauty and loveliness had become the talk of the town. Thus they
passed a trifle of time, and every day the people flocked to them
and pressed upon them more and more, till the Wazir, after
exhorting Taj al-Muluk to keep his secret, commended him to the
care of Aziz and went home, that he might commune with himself
alone and cast about for some contrivance which might profit
them. Meanwhile, the two young men sat talking and Taj al-Muluk
said to Aziz, "Haply some one will come from the Lady Dunya." So
he ceased not expecting this chance days and nights, but his
heart was troubled and he knew neither sleep nor rest; for desire
had got the mastery of him, and love and longing were sore upon
him, so that he renounced the solace of sleep and abstained from
meat and drink; yet ceased he not to be like the moon on the
night of fullness. Now one day as he sat in the shop, behold,
there came up an ancient woman.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the One Hundred and Thirty-third Night,