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On the morrow, Mariyeh accosted him, and he received her kindly, though before he would not hearken to her, and said to her, 'What is thy will? Quoth she, 'I have a suit to thee. 'Name it, answered he; 'for, by Allah, thou shalt not ask me aught, but I will give it thee! So she told him that she was in love with him, and her suit to him was that he would grant her a lover's privacy; and he agreed to do her will, on condition that she would serve him with Hind and make shift to bring them together.
How shall the marriage be brought about, seeing it misliketh me to open the matter to him? 'He is yet more ardently in love and yet more desireful of her than she of him, answered Mariyeh; 'and I will so order the matter that he shall be unaware that his case is known to thee; but do not betray thyself, O King.
'Indeed my longing for him makes me restless, and no repose is left me since yesterday, on his account. Quoth Mariyeh, 'I will appoint him to be in such a place, where thou canst look on him from the palace. 'Do what thou wilt, replied Hind and agreed with her upon the place.
When the princess saw him, she was ravished with him, her reason was confounded and her colour changed; and Mariyeh, seeing her inclination to him, said to her, 'Speak to him. So she spoke to him and went away.
Now there was with Hind a slave-girl named Mariyeh, who was enamoured of Adi, but had not been able to win to him. So, when she saw him in the church, she said to Hind, 'Look at yonder youth. By Allah, he is handsomer than all thou seest! 'And who is he? asked Hind.
'Adi ben Zeid, answered Mariyeh Quoth the princess, 'I fear lest he know me, if I draw near, to look on him closelier. 'How should he know thee, said Mariyeh, 'when he has never seen thee? So she drew near him and found him jesting with his companions; and indeed he surpassed them all, not only in his beauty, but in the excellence of his speech and the eloquence of his tongue and the richness of his apparel.
So Adi came, and the princess looked out upon him; and when she saw him, she was like to fall down from the top of the palace and said to Mariyeh, 'Except thou bring him in to me this night, I shall die. So saying, she fell down in a swoon, and her serving-women lifted her up and bore her into the palace; whilst Mariyeh hastened to En Numan and discovered the whole matter to him, saying, 'Verily, she is mad for love of Adi; and except thou marry her to him, she will be put to shame and die of love for him. The King bowed his head awhile in thought and exclaimed again and again, 'Verily, we are God's and to Him we return! Then said he, 'Out on thee!
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