sultan, but with as little success as the first morning, and
might have perhaps come a thousand times to as little purpose, if
luckily the sultan himself had not taken particular notice of
her: for only those who came with petitions approached the
sultan, when each pleaded their cause in its turn, and Alla ad
Deen's mother was not one of them.

On the sixth day, however, after the divan was broken up, when
the sultan returned to his own apartment, he said to his grand
vizier, "I have for some time observed a certain woman, who
attends constantly every day that I give audience, with something
wrapped up in a napkin: she always stands up from the beginning
to the breaking up of the audience, and affects to place herself
just before me. Do you know what she wants?"

"Sir," replied the grand vizier, who knew no more than the sultan
what she wanted, but did not wish to seem uninformed, "your
majesty knows that women often make complaints on trifles;
perhaps she may come to complain to your majesty that somebody
has sold her some bad flour, or some such trifling matter." The
sultan was not satisfied with this answer, but replied, "If this
woman comes to our next audience, do not fail to call her, that I
may hear what she has to say." The grand vizier made answer by
lowering his hand, and then lifting it up above his head,
signifying his willingness to lose it if he failed.

By this time, the tailor's widow was so much used to go to
audience, and stand before the sultan, that she did not think it
any trouble, if she could but satisfy her son that she neglected
nothing that lay in her power to please him: the next audience