at carelessly down on the
sofa, and remained silently musing on the image of the charming
Badroulboudour.

After supper, his mother asked him again why he was so melancholy, but
could get no information, and he determined to go to bed rather than
give her the least satisfaction. As he sat next day on the sofa,
opposite his mother, however, as she was spinning cotton, he spoke to
her in these words: "I perceive, mother, that my silence yesterday has
much troubled you; I was not, nor am I ill; but I assure you, that what
I felt then, and now endure, is worse than any disease.

"It was not proclaimed in this quarter of the town, and therefore you
could know nothing of it, that the sultan's daughter was yesterday to go
to the baths. I had a great curiosity to see her face; and as it
occurred to me that when she came nigh the bath, she would pull her veil
off, I resolved to conceal myself behind the door. She did so and I had
the happiness of seeing her lovely face with the greatest security.
This, mother, was the cause of my silence yesterday; I love the princess
with more violence than I can express; and as my passion increases every
moment, I am resolved to ask her in marriage of the sultan, her
father."

Aladdin's mother listened with interest to what her son told her; but
when he talked of asking the princess in marriage, she could not help
bursting out into a loud laugh. He would have gone on with his rhapsody,
but she interrupted him: "Alas! child," said she, "what are you thinking
of? you must be mad to talk thus."

"I assure you, mother," replied Aladdin, "that I am not mad, but in my
right senses; I foresaw that you would reproach me with folly and
extravagance; but I must tell you once more, that I am resolved to
demand the princess in marriage!"

"Indeed, son," replied the mother seriously, "I cannot help telling you
that you have forgotten yourself, and I do not see who will venture to
make the proposal for you." "You yourself," replied he immediately. "I
go to the sultan!" answered the mother, amazed. "I shall be cautious how
I engage in such an errand. Why, who are you, son," continued she, "that
you can have the assurance to think of your sultan's daughter? Have you
forgotten that your father was one of the poorest tailors in the
capital, and that I am of no better extraction; and do not you know that
sultans never marry their daughters but to sons of sovereigns like
themselves?"

"Mother," answered A