' So I got her from the
merchants what she wanted, and she took it and went away, without
saying a word to me about the price. As soon as she was out of
sight, I repented me of what I had done, for the price of what
I had bought for her was a thousand dinars, and I said to
myself, 'What doting is this? She has brought me five thousand
dirhems[FN#82], and taken a thousand dinars'[FN#83] worth of
goods.' And I feared lest I should be beggared, through having to
pay the merchants their money, and said, 'They know none but me
and this woman is none other than a cheat, who hath cozened me
with her beauty and grace, for she saw that I was young and
laughed at me; and I did not ask her address.' She did not come
again for more than a month, and I abode in constant distress and
perplexity, till at last the merchants dunned me for their money
and pressed me so that I put up my property for sale and looked
for nothing but ruin. However, as I was sitting in my shop, one
day, absorbed in melancholy thought, she rode up and dismounting
at the gate of the bazaar, came in and made towards me. When I
saw her, my anxiety ceased and I forgot my troubles. She came up
to me and greeting me with her pleasant speech, said to me,
'Fetch the money-changer and take thy money.' So she gave me the
price of the goods I had gotten for her and more, and fell to
conversing freely with me, till I was like to die of joy and
delight.
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