Presently, the old woman came in to her and saw her sitting at Aboulhusn’s head, weeping and lamenting; and when she saw the old woman, she cried out and said to her, “See what hath betided me!  Indeed, Aboulhusn is dead and hath left me alone and forlorn!” Then she cried out and tore her clothes and said to the old woman, “O my mother, how good he was!” Quoth the other, “Indeed thou art excused, for thou wast used to him and he to thee.”  Then she considered what Mesrour had reported to the Khalif and the Lady Zubeideh and said to her, “Indeed, Mesrour goeth about to sow discord between the Khalif and the Lady Zubeideh.”  “And what is the [cause of] discord, O my mother?” asked Nuzhet el Fuad.  “O my daughter,” answered the old woman, “Mesrour came to the Khalif and the Lady Zubeideh and gave them news of thee that thou wast dead and that Aboulhusn was well.  “And Nuzhet el Fuad said to her, “O my aunt, I was with my lady but now and she gave me a hundred dinars and a piece of silk; and now see my condition and that which hath befallen me!  Indeed, I am bewildered, and how shall I do, and I alone, forlorn?  Would God I had died and he had lived!”

Then she wept and the old woman with her and the latter went up to Aboulhusn and uncovering his face, saw his eyes bound and swollen for the binding.  So she covered him again and said, “Indeed, O Nuzhet el Fuad, thou art afflicted in Aboulhusn!” Then she condoled with her and going out from her, ran without ceasing till she came in to the Lady Zubeideh and related to her the story; and the princess said to her, laughing, “Tell it over again to the Khalif, who maketh me out scant of wit and lacking of religion, and to this ill-omened slave, who presumeth to contradict me.”  Quoth Mesrour, “This old woman lieth; for I saw Aboulhusn well and Nuzhet el Fuad it was who lay dead.”  “It is thou that liest,” rejoined the stewardess, “and wouldst fain sow discord between the Khalif and the Lady Zubeideh.”  And he said, “None lieth but thou, O old woman of ill-omen, and thy lady believeth thee, and she doteth.”  Whereupon the Lady Zubeideh cried out at him, and indeed she was enraged at him and at his speech and wept.

Then said the Khalif to her, “I lie and my eunuch lieth, and thou liest and thy waiting-woman lieth; so methinks we were best go, all four of us together, that we may see which of us telleth the truth.”  Quoth Mesrour, “Come, let us go, that I may put this ill-omened old woman to shame[FN#37] and deal her a sound drubbing for her lying.”  And she answered him, saying, “O dotard, is thy wit like unto my wit?  Indeed, thy wit is as the hen’s wit.”  Mesrour was incensed at her words and would have laid violent hands on her, but the Lady Zubeideh warded him off from her and said to him, “Her sooth-fastness will presently be distinguished from thy sooth-fastness and her leasing from thy leasing.”