t such a price?" The
Vizier, who wanted her for his own son, begged the Sultan to withhold
her for three months, in the course of which he hoped his son would
contrive to make him a richer present. The Sultan granted this, and told
Aladdin's mother that, though he consented to the marriage, she must not
appear before him again for three months.

Aladdin waited patiently for nearly three months, but after two had
elapsed his mother, going into the city to buy oil, found every one
rejoicing, and asked what was going on. "Do you not know," was the
answer, "that the son of the Grand Vizier is to marry the Sultan's
daughter to-night?" Breathless, she ran and told Aladdin, who was
overwhelmed at first, but presently bethought him of the lamp. He rubbed
it, and the genie appeared, saying, "What is thy will?" Aladdin replied:
"The Sultan, as thou knowest, has broken his promise to me, and the
Vizier's son is to have the Princess. My command is that to-night you
bring hither the bride and bridegroom." "Master, I obey," said the
genie. Aladdin then went to his chamber, where, sure enough, at midnight
the genie transported the bed containing the Vizier's son and the
Princess. "Take this new-married man," he said, "and put him outside in
the cold, and return at daybreak." Whereupon the genie took the Vizier's
son out of bed, leaving Aladdin with the Princess. "Fear nothing,"
Aladdin said to her; "you are my wife, promised to me by your unjust
father, and no harm shall come to you." The Princess was too frightened
to speak, and passed the most miserable night of her life, while Aladdin
lay down beside her and slept soundly. At the appointed hour the
genie fetched in the shivering bridegroom, laid him in his place, and
transported the bed back to the palace.

Presently the Sultan came to wish his daughter good-morning. The unhappy
Vizier's son jumped up and hid himself, while the Princess would not say
a word, and was very sorrowful. The Sultan sent her mother to her, who
said: "How comes it, child, that you will not speak to your father? What
has happened?" The Princess sighed deeply, and at last told her mother
how, during the night, the bed had been carried into some strange house,
and what had passed there. Her mother did not believe her in the least,
but bade her rise and consider it an idle dream.

The following night exactly the same thing happened, and next morning,
on the Princess's refusal to speak, the Sultan threatened