By Allah, I never in all
my life passed a pleasanter night! So do not mock me by reminding
me of that hunchback." When her father heard this, he was filled
with rage and glared at her, saving, "Out on thee! what words are
these? It was the hunchbacked groom that lay with thee." "For
God's sake," replied the Lady of Beauty, "do not mention him to
me, may God curse his father! And mock me not, for the groom was
only hired for ten dinars to conjure the evil eye from us, and he
took his hire and departed. As for me, I entered the bridal
chamber, where I found my true husband sitting in the alcove, him
before whom the singers had unveiled me and who flung them the
red gold by handsful, till he made all the poor there rich; and I
passed the night in the arms of my sprightly husband, with the
black eyes and joined eyebrows." When her father heard this, the
light in his eyes became darkness, and he cried out at her,
saying, "O wanton, what is this thou sayest? Where are thy
senses?" "O my father," rejoined she, "thou breakest my heart
with thy persistence in making mock of me! Indeed, my husband,
who took my maidenhead, is in the wardrobe and I am with child by
him." The Vizier rose, wondering, and entered the draught-house,
where he found the hunchbacked groom with his head in the slit
and his heels in the air. At this sight he was confounded and
said, "This is none other than the hunchback.
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