Arabian Nights: 208th Night: Anis al Jalis, The Slave Girl - 8

The following night Shahrazad said:

I heard, O happy King that one of the guests said that there was a knock at the door.  Nur al-Din Ali went to open the door, but he was followed, without his knowledge, by one among his guests.  Nur al-Din Ali opened the door, and there stood his steward.
"What is the matter?" asked Nur al-Din Ali.
The steward replied, "My lord, what I feared has come to pass."
"How so?"
"To put briefly, you should know that there is not even a Dirham's worth left of your possessions in my hands;
here is the record of what was entrusted to your servant in my lord's handwriting."
Nur al-Din Ali bowed his head and said, "This is God's wish. No man can alter it."

The man who had secretly followed 
Nur al-Din Ali returned to his friends, and said to them, "You should consider what to do. Our lord is bankrupt, and destitute."
They replied, "We will not stay with him." 
Nur al-Din dismissed the steward and returned to his friends.  One of the friends rose, and turning to Nur al-Din, said, "My lord, perhaps you will give me leave to depart early." This was his dearest friend.  Nur al-Din asked, "Why, so early?"  The man replied, "My wife is due to give birth today, I cannot be absent from her and wish to be with her" Nur al-Din gave him leave. One by one, the other friends also left him with one or other excuses. Nur al-Din Ali was left alone.

He called Anis al Jalis. She came.  "Do you see what happened to me?" and he related to her what the steward told.  She said, "My lord, your family and friends have warned you, but you refused to listen.  O my lord, some nights ago I tried to speak to you about this, but I heard you recite the following verses:
Be kind to all when fortune befriends
Before she slips and let you down 
Munificence will not undo it.
And avarice will not preserve it.

"When I heard what you said, I kept quiet and decided not to open the subject." said, Anis al Jalis.

"O my dear wife, I have spent on none, but my dear friends.  I don't think they will leave me destitute."
"By God, my lord, they will never help you," said Anis al Jalis.

"I will go at once to them, and perhaps, I will get enough from them to use as capital to trade with and leave off idle pursuits," said Nur al-Din Ali.

Then he went to the street where all his ten friends stay.  He went to the first door, and knocked at it, a maid came out, and asked, "Who are you?"

"O girl, say to your master, "My lord Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan stands at the door and wishes to kiss your hand and greet you."  The girl went in and told her master, who yelled at her, saying, "Go out and say to him, 'My master is not at home.'" And the girl came out and said to Nur al-Din, "My master is not at home."  Nur al-Din said to himself......"

But morning overtook and Shahrazad lapsed into silence."



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