I cannot
let her pass, for thus am I commanded." "O chief chamberlain,"
replied the old woman, "use thy reason. Thou knowest that Num,
the Khalif's slave-girl, of whom he is enamoured, is but now
restored to health and the Commander of the Faithful hardly yet
credits her recovery. Now she is minded to buy this girl; so
oppose thou not her entrance, lest it come to Num's knowledge and
she be wroth with thee and suffer a relapse and this bring thy
head to be cut off." Then said she to Nimeh, "Enter, O damsel;
pay no heed to what he says and tell not the princess that he
opposed thine entrance." So Nimeh bowed his head and entered,
but mistook and turned to his right, instead of his left, and
meaning to count five doors and enter the sixth, counted six
and entering the seventh, found himself in a place carpeted
with brocade and hung with curtains of gold-embroidered silk.
Here and there stood censers of aloes-wood and ambergris and
sweet-scented musk, and at the upper end was a couch covered with
brocade, on which he seated himself, marvelling at the exceeding
magnificence of the place and knowing not what was appointed to
him in the secret purpose of God. As he sat musing on his case,
the Khalif's sister entered, followed by her handmaid, and seeing
him seated there took him for a slave-girl and said to him, "What
art thou, O damsel, and who brought thee hither?" He made no
reply and she continued, "If thou be one of my brother's
favourites and he be wroth with thee, I will intercede with him
for thee.
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