purchases among certain of the warehouses of the city and the shops of
the tradesmen, jewellers and others, so that she went about as she would,
but for the slaves that attended her and the overseer of the harem. This
continued, and Aswarak became urgent with her, and to remove suspicion
from him she named a day from that period when she would be his.
Meantime she contrived to see Ukleet the porter frequently, and within a
week of her engagement with the Vizier she gazed from a lattice-window of
the harem, and beheld in the garden, by the beams of the moon, Ukleet,
and he was looking as on the watch for her. So she sent to him the
little mountain-girl she loved, but Ukleet would tell her nothing; then
went she herself, greeting him graciously, for his service was other than
that of self-seeking.

Ukleet said, 'O Lady, mistress of hearts, moon of the tides of will! 'tis
certain I was thy slave from the hour I beheld thee first, and of the
Prince, thy husband; Allah rest his soul! Now these be my tidings.
Wullahy! the King is one maddened with the reports I've spread about of
thy beauty, yea! raging. And I have a friend in his palace, even an
under-cook, acute in the interpreting of wishes. There was he always
gabbling of thy case, O my Princess, till the head-cook seized hold on
it, and so it went to the chamberlain, thence to the chief of the
eunuchs, and from him in a natural course, to the King. Now from the
King the tracking of this tale went to the under-cook down again, and
from him to me. So was I summoned to the King, and the King discoursed
with me--I with him, in fair fluency; he in ejaculations of desire to
have sight of thee, I in expatiation on that he would see when he had his
desire. Now in this have I not done thee a service, O sovereign of
fancies?'

Bhanavar mused and said, 'On the after-morrow I pass through the city to