Take your weights, said she, and weigh the gold I have brought you. These words dispelled my fear, and inflamed my love. Before we counted the money, she asked me several questions, and particularly if I was married. I answered I never had been. Then reaching out the gold to the eunuch, let us have your interposition, said she, to accommodate our matters. Upon which the eunuch fell a laughing, and calling me aside, made me weigh the gold. While I was thus occupied, the eunuch whispered in my ear --I know by your eyes you love this lady, and am surprised you have not the courage to disclose your passion. She loves you more ardently than you do her. Do not imagine that she has any real occasion for your stuffs. She only makes this her pretence to come here, because you have inspired her with a violent passion. It was for this reason she asked you if you were married. It will be your own fault, if you do not marry her. It is true. I replied, I have had a passion for her from the first moment that I cast my eyes upon her; but I durst not aspire to the happiness of thinking my attachment could meet her approbation. I am entirely hers, and shall not fail to retain a grateful sense of your good offices in this affair. I finished weighing the gold, and while I was putting it into the bag, the eunuch turned to the lady, and told her I was satisfied; that being the word they had agreed upon between themselves. Presently after, the lady rose and took her leave; telling me she would send her eunuch to me, and that I had only to obey the directions he might give me in her name. I carried each of the merchants their money, and waited some days with impatience for the eunuch. At last he came. I received him very kindly, and inquired after his mistress’s health. You are, said he, the happiest lover in the world; she is quite sick of love for you, and is impatient to see you; and were she mistress of her own conduct, would not fail to come to you herself, and willingly pass in your society all the days of her life. Her noble mien and graceful carriage, I replied, convinced me that she was a lady beyond the common rank. You have not erred in your judgment on that head, said the eunuch: she is the favourite of Zobeide, the caliph’s wife, who is the more affectionately attached to her from having brought her up from her infancy, and intrusts her with all her affairs. Having a wish to marry, she has declared to her mistress that she has fixed her affections upon you, and has desired her consent.