Then I devoted myself wholly to her and paid
her frequent visits, and she was good and generous to me. As
often as I passed the night with her, she would make much of me
and ask me of the two words my cousin told my mother, and I would
repeat them to her.
I abode thus a whole year, till, what with eating and drinking
and dalliance and wearing change of rich raiment, I waxed stout
and fat, so that I lost all thought of sorrow and anxiety and
forgot my cousin Azizeh. At the end of this time, I went one
day to the bath, where I refreshed myself and put on a rich
suit of clothes, scented with various perfumes; then, coming
out I drank a cup of wine and smelt the fragrance of my new
clothes, whereupon my breast dilated, for I knew not the
perfidy of fortune nor the calamities of events. When the hour
of evening-prayer came, I thought to repair to my mistress; but
being heated with wine, I knew not where I went, so that, on the
way, my drunkenness turned me into a by-street called En Nekib,
where, as I was going along, I met an old woman with a lighted
flambeau in one hand and a folded letter in the other; and she
was weeping and repeating the following verses:
O welcome, bearer of glad news, thrice welcome to my sight; How
sweet and solaceful to me thy tidings of delight!
Thou that the loved one's greeting bringst unto my longing soul,
God's peace, what while the zephyr blows, dwell with thee
day and night!
When she saw me, she said to me, "O my son, canst thou read?" And
I, of my officiousness, answered, "Yes, O old aunt.
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