' So it befell, for the accomplishment of that which God the
Most High had decreed, that the Amir and his son went down, on
the same day as Jaafer and Alaeddin, to the market, where they
saw a beautiful girl, full of grace and symmetry, in the hands of
a broker, and the Vizier said to the latter, 'O broker, ask her
owner if he will take a thousand dinars for her.' The broker
passed by the Amir and his son with the slave and Hebezlem took
one look of her, that cost him a thousand sighs; and he fell
passionately in love with her and said, 'O my father, buy me
yonder slave-girl.' So the Amir called the broker, who brought
the girl to him, and asked her her name. 'My name is Jessamine,'
replied she; and he said to Hebezlem, 'O my son, an she please
thee, bid for her.' Then he asked the broker what had been bidden
for her and he replied, 'A thousand dinars.' 'She is mine for a
thousand and one,' said Hebezlem, and the broker passed on to
Alaeddin, who bid two thousand dinars for her; and as often as
Hebezlem bid another dinar, Alaeddin bid a thousand. The Amir's
son was vexed at this and said to the broker, 'Who is it that
bids against me for the slave-girl?' 'It is the Vizier Jaafer,'
answered the broker, 'who is minded to buy her for Alaeddin Abou
esh Shamat.
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