When Nuzhat-el-Fuad returned to the house and showed Abu-l-Hasan the first fruits of his plan, he arose and, sharing her delight, danced with glee. Together they took the spoil and laid it by; then they addressed themselves to the second[216] part of their jest. Nuzhat-el-Fuad was speedily disposed according to the first rites of the dead, and Abu-l-Hasan fell to tearing his garments and setting his turban awry, and practising postures of grief. Then he set forth to the Palace, plucking his beard and moaning as he ran. When he arrived there the Khalifeh was in the judgment hall, but Abu-l-Hasan was given immediate audience because of his haste and despair.

“What ails thee? ” said the Khalifeh, regarding Abu-l-Hasan with dismay, for he was beating his breast and moaning in agony of mind. “Alas! O Prince of the Faithful! Alas!

that thy boon companion had ever been born! ” At which outburst of grief the Khalifeh took him gently and sought to learn the cause of such overwhelming woe. At length, Abu-l-Hasan told him. Nuzhat-el-Fuad, the half of his life, was dead! “Now, by Allah!

” said the Khalifeh, “there is no god but Allah! ” And he smote his palms together and raised his eyes to heaven. He condoled with the bereaved man and bade him submit to the will of Allah. It was Abu-l-Hasan’s plain duty to do this—especially as he, the Khalifeh, would send him a far fairer woman than the one he had lost. Then he bestowed on Abu-l-Hasan a hundred pieces of gold and a piece of fine silk, and bade him prepare the corpse for burial in a manner befitting one so dear.

Full of suppressed joy, Abu-l-Hasan took the guerdon and hastened back to his house, where he found Nuzhat-el-Fuad ready to dance in her turn. They rejoiced together and presently added the gold pieces and the silk to those already laid by.

Now, the Khalifeh, as soon as he could dismiss his Council, hurried with Mesrur, his executioner, to Zubeydeh to condole with her on the loss of Nuzhat-el-Fuad. But[217] when he came to her he found her weeping and waiting for his coming to condole with him on the loss of Abu-l-Hasan. And when it came to a clear misunderstanding between them as to which was dead—Abu-l-Hasan or Nuzhat-el-Fuad,—or, at the furthest, which had died first, the Khalifeh settled the matter in his own mind by turning to Mesrur, his executioner, and saying, “Truly, there is little sense in a woman.”

“Jest not with me,” cried Zubeydeh, laughing contemptuously. “Is it not enough that Abu-l-Hasan is dead, that thou shouldst seek to bury his wife with him! Cease! Nuzhat-el-Fuad came to me in grief, mourning the death of Abu-l-Hasan.”

“Cease to thee!” replied Er-Rashid, “for Abu-l-Hasan came since to me, mourning the death of Nuzhat-el-Fuad. Silence, woman! It is Nuzhat-el-Fuad who is dead.” Then Zubeydeh recounted all the facts of the case, but the Khalifeh only laughed and reiterated: “It is certainly Nuzhat-el-Fuad who is dead, and not Abu-l-Hasan.”

And so they continued to contradict each other until the Khalifeh grew very angry, and, thinking to settle the matter easily, sent Mesrur in all haste to the house of Abu-l-Hasan to ascertain the truth.

The Executioner set forth running at full speed, and no sooner was he gone than the Khalifeh said to Zubeydeh, “Wilt thou make me a wager?” “I will,” said she, “for certain am I that Abu-l-Hasan is dead.” “And equally certain am I that none but Nuzhat-el-Fuad is dead.” So the Khalifeh staked his Garden of Delight against Zubeydeh’s Hall of Statues, and, when this was agreed upon, they waited impatiently for Mesrur’s return.

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Meanwhile, Abu-l-Hasan, seated at the window in his house, beheld the executioner come running in haste, and said to his wife, “Methinks the Khalifeh hath announced thy death to Zubeydeh and she hath contradicted him, saying it is Abu-l-Hasan that is dead. And then, one word giving another, each hath become more obstinate, until the Khalifeh hath proposed a wager and hath now sent his executioner running hither to learn which is dead. I think, therefore, to preserve my honour in the Khalifeh’s eyes, it is well that thou be the corpse so that Mesrur may see thee and return and inform the Khalifeh, who will then at once believe my assertion and win his wager.”

Swiftly Nuzhat-el-Fuad obeyed, and, by the time Mesrur reached the house, she was extended ready for burial, while Abu-l-Hasan sat at her head weeping and beating his breast. And Mesrur advanced and uncovered her face, crying “There is no god but Allah! Alas! Our sister Nuzhat-el-Fuad is taken away! ” He hastened back to the Palace and told the Khalifeh and Zubeydeh that Abu-l-Hasan was alive and well, and that Nuzhat-el-Fuad was dead.

At this the Khalifeh laughed heartily, saying “Now have I won thy Hall of Statues! ” Then he bade Mesrur tell the story again, omitting no smallest point; for he said Zubeydeh was lacking in sense and dull of comprehension. This enraged Zubeydeh and she retorted that it was the one who believed the word of a slave like Mesrur who was lacking in sense. But the more angry she became the more the Khalifeh laughed, until she calmed herself and said, “O Prince of the Faithful! this slave here is lying in order to please thee.

Now I will send my messenger, and then the truth of the matter will be clear. ” The Khalifeh, still laughing, readily[219] consented; and Zubeydeh summoned an old woman and bade her run with all speed to this house of the quick and the dead and learn for a certainty which was prepared for the grave. And the old woman set forth running as fast as her legs would carry her.

Now, when Nuzhat-el-Fuad, seated at the window, saw her drawing near, she said to Abu-l-Hasan, “Methinks the Lady Zubeydeh hath found fault with Mesrur’s report of thy death, and hath sent her messenger to learn the truth. Therefore, to preserve my honour in Zubeydeh’s eyes, is it not proper that thou be dead?”

“That is so,” said Abu-l-Hasan, and he extended himself on the floor, while his wife prepared his corpse for the grave. When the old woman came in she found Nuzhat-el-Fuad sitting at his head, weeping bitterly and tearing her hair. “O my mother! ” she wailed, “there was none like him! Alas!

I am alone and wretched! ” And she fell to moaning and sobbing and rocking herself to and fro in uncontrollable grief.

The old woman comforted her and told her how Mesrur had sought to stir up a quarrel between the Khalifeh and Zubeydeh by a lying report. Nuzhet-el-Fuad, in return, protested that, not long since, she was with the Lady Zubeydeh, who had bestowed upon her a hundred pieces of gold and a piece of fine spun silk, saying, “Go prepare thy husband’s body for the grave!” And in a fresh outburst of grief Nuzhet-el-Fuad cried, “Oh! would that Mesrur’s tale were true! Would that I had died and Abu-l-Hasan had lived, for I am solitary and know not what to do.”

After the two had wept together over the body of Abu-l-Hasan the old woman hastened back to the Palace and[220] told her story to the Lady Zubeydeh, who laughed heartily and bade her tell it to the Khalifeh. On hearing it the Khalifeh paused and pondered, but Mesrur cried, “Thou liest, hag! I myself saw Nuzhet-el-Fuad lying dead and Abu-l-Hasan alive.”

“It is thou that liest!” retorted the old woman, “and thou hast a reason.” And Mesrur would have laid his hands upon her, but Zubeydeh interposed, weeping; whereupon the Khalifeh said, “Nay, nay; it seems we are all liars, and methinks the proper course is that we all go together to the house of Abu-l-Hasan and so see who lieth truly and who lieth falsely.” So all four went forth disputing and laying wager on wager as they went.

Now, Abu-l-Hasan, who had said within himself, “The matter cannot end here,” had seated himself at the window to watch; and, when he saw the four approaching, he turned to his wife and remarked wisely, “O Nuzhet-el-Fuad! Verily, all is not a pancake that is slippery, and the pitcher that goes often to the fountain will one day be broken. Mesrur and the old woman have brewed trouble with their different tales. See! here come the Khalifeh and his messenger, and the Lady Zubeydeh and her messenger; and they are contending and disputing among themselves.

Now, to save our reputation for veracity, we must both be dead.

With great haste they laid themselves out, and, before the babel of contention reached the house, they were lying side by side prepared for burial, and like nothing so much as the silence of the grave. And thus the Khalifeh, and Zubeydeh, and Mesrur, and the old woman, found them when they entered. “Alas! ” cried the Lady Zubeydeh, turning to the Khalifeh and Mesrur, “by your repeated tales[221] of her death you have succeeded at last in killing her! ” “This is foolish talk,” replied the Khalifeh, while Mesrur and the old woman glared at one another, speechless.

“Did not Abu-l-Hasan come to me, plucking his beard and smiting his breast, and saying, ‘Nuzhet-el-Fuad is dead? ’ Truly, then, she died first, and he, after we had made our wager, died of grief. I, therefore, have won. ” But Zubeydeh replied to this in a torrent of words, saying that Nuzhet-el-Fuad came to her, tearing her hair and calling out in sorrow for the death of Abu-l-Hasan. And as this was before the wager was made she in her turn claimed to have won.

A long dispute ensued in which Mesrur and the old woman joined, but neither side could convince the other; and none knew but the two who lay still as death.

At last the Khalifeh, weary of the wrangle, sat himself down at the heads of the two corpses and said hotly, “By Allah! By the tomb of the Prophet! By the graves of all my ancestors! I would give a thousand pieces of gold to any one who could tell me which of these two died before the other.”

No sooner had Abu-l-Hasan heard these words than he, being somewhat quicker in such things than his wife, sprang up crying, “O Prince of the Faithful! it was I who died first. And I have won the thousand pieces according to thine oath. ” But, when Nuzhet-el-Fuad sat up before them, and the Lady Zubeydeh saw that they had practised a trick to obtain the gold, she chid her gently, reproaching her for not asking for help; and yet she wept all the time with joy that she was alive. And the Khalifeh—he wept with laughter, and, as soon as he could speak, he cried, “O Abu-l-Hasan, truly thou art a wag!

” “Nay, O Prince of the Faithful! ”[222] replied Abu-l-Hasan, “I had dispensed the good gifts at thy hands, and, being sore stricken with poverty, could contrive no other way but to play this trick upon thee.

At this the Khalifeh and the Lady Zubeydeh laughed heartily, and even Mesrur twisted his face into a grin and forgot his threat to bastinade the old woman.

“Come,” said the Khalifeh, “I must reward thee for thy victory over death.” And, when they had gained the Palace, Er-Rashid gave him the thousand pieces of gold, and assured to him an unstinted plenitude in the future. Zubeydeh also, in token of similar goodwill, bestowed a thousand pieces of gold upon Nuzhet-el-Fuad. And Abu-l-Hasan and Nuzhet-el-Fuad lived happily thereafter, until, in the end, the last cup of joy was drunk, and the Gleaner, who gleans in palaces and the humblest homes, came to gather them in.

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