iments, having passed, my fair mistress ordered the old
Ayesha (for that was the name of my conductress) to leave the room, and
then leaning forwards, as if to take up her fan of peacock's feathers,
which was on the cushion, she permitted her veil to fall, and exhibited
to my impatient eyes the most beautiful face that nature had ever
formed.

This was the signal for laying by all reserve, and I prostrated myself
before this divinity with all the adoration of a profound devotee, and
poured out such a rhapsody of love and admiration, as to leave no doubt
in her mind of the tenderness of my heart, the acuteness of my wit, and
the excellence of my taste. In short, the emir's widow had every reason
to be satisfied with the choice she had made; and she very soon showed
the confidence which she intended to place in me, by making me at once
the depository of her secrets.

'I am in a difficult situation,' said she, 'and the evil eye which many
cast upon me hath embittered my soul. You may conceive, that, owing to
the wealth with which I have been endowed by my late husband (upon
whom be eternal blessings!) and to my own dower besides, which was
considerable, I have been tormented with many persecutions, and they
have almost driven me mad. My relations all claim a right to me, as if
I were part of the family estate. My brothers have their own interest in
view when they would negotiate a husband for me, as if they would barter
a sack of wool against bags of rice. A nephew of my husband, a man of
the law, pretends to claim an old custom, by which, when a man died,
one of his relations had a right to his widow, which he might assert
by throwing his cloak over her. Another relation again pretends, that,
according to the law, I am not entitled to the whole of what I now
possess, and threatens to dispute it. In short, so sadly perplexed have
I been under these circumstances, I only saw one way to set the matter
at rest, which was to marry again. Fate has thrown you in my way, and I
am no longer at a loss.'

She then informed me of the arrangements she had made for our immediate
union, in case I was not averse to it, and referred me to a man of the
law, whom she had secured to act in her behalf, who would make out all
the proper papers, and whom she informed me was now in the house ready
to officiate. I was not prepared for quite so much dispatch, and felt my
heart misgive me, as if it were hovering between heaven and earth; but
I d