Dinarzade being awake before day, addressed the sultaness thus:
Sister, if you be awake, I would pray you to continue the history
you began yesterday; and Scheherazade went on with it thus:
While the young lady and the porter staid for the opening of the
gate, the porter had a thousand thoughts: he wondered that such a
fine lady should come abroad to buy provisions: he concluded she
could not be a slave, her air was too noble; and therefore he
thought she must needs be a woman of quality. Just as he was about
to ask her some questions upon that head, another lady came to open
the gate, and appeared to him so beautiful, that he was perfectly
surprised, or rather so much struck with her charms, that he had
like to have let his basket fall, for he had never seen any beauty
that equalled her.
The lady who brought the porter with her, perceiving his disorder,
and what occasioned it, diverted herself with it, and took so much
pleasure to examine his looks, that she forgot the gate was opened.
Upon this the beautiful lady said to her, Pray, sister, come in;
what do you stay for? Do you not see this poor man so heavily laden,
that he is scarcely able to stand under it?
When she entered with the porter, the lady who opened the gate shut
it, and all three, after having gone through a very fine porch, came
into a spacious court, encompassed with an open gallery, which had a
communication with several apartments on a floor, and
extraordinarily magnificent. There was at the farther end of the
court a sofa richly adorned, with a throne of amber in the middle of
it, supported by four columns of ebony, enriched with diamonds and
pearls of an extraordinary size, and covered with red satin
embroidered with Indian gold of admirable workmanship. In the middle
of the court there was a great fountain, faced with white marble,
and full of clear water, which fell into it abundantly out of the
mouth of a lion of brass.
The porter, though heavy laden, could not but admire the
magnificence of this house, and the excellent order that every thing
was placed in; but that which particularly captivated his attention
was a third lady, who seemed to be a greater beauty than the second,
and was seated upon the throne just now mentioned. She came down
from it, as soon as she saw the two former ladies, and advanced
towards them; he judged by the respect which the others showed her,
that she was the chief, in which he was not mistaken. This lady was
called Zobeide, she who opened the gate was called Safie, and Amine
was the name of her who went out to buy the provisions.
Zobeide said to the two ladies, when she came to them, Sisters, do
not you see that this honest man is ready to sink under his burden?
Why do not you ease him of it? Then Amine and Safie took the basket,
the one before and the other behind, and Zobeide also lent her hand,
and all three together set it on the ground; then emptied it; and
when they had done, the beautiful Amine took out money, and paid the
porter liberally. Day-light appearing, Scheherazade was obliged to
keep silence; but Schahriar, having a great desire to hear the rest
of the story, ordered the sultaness to go on with it next night.