Expect no flatteries from me,
        While I am empty of good things;
     I’ll call thee fair, and I’ll agree
        Thou boldest Love in silken strings,
   When thou bast primed me from thy plenteous store! 
     But, oh! till then a clod am I: 
        No seed within to throw up flowers: 
     All’s drouthy to the fountain dry: 
        To empty stomachs Nature lowers: 
   The lake was full where heaven look’d fair of yore!

So, when he had spoken that, the old woman laughed and exclaimed, ’Thou art apt! it is well said!  Surely I excuse thee till that time!  Now listen!  ’Tis written we work together, and I know it by divination.  Have I not known thee wandering, and on thy way to this city of Shagpat, where thou’lt some day sit throned?  Now I propose to thee this—­and ’tis an excellent proposal—­that I lead thee to great things, and make thee glorious, a sitter in high seats, Master of an Event?’

Cried he, ‘A proposal honourable to thee, and pleasant in the ear.’

She added, ‘Provided thou marry me in sweet marriage.’

Thereat he stared on vacancy with a serious eye, and he could scarce credit her earnestness, but she repeated the same.  So presently he thought, ’This old hag appeareth deep in the fountain of events, and she will be a right arm to me in the mastering of one, a torch in darkness, seeing there is wisdom in her as well as wickedness.  The thwackings?—­sad was their taste, but they’re in the road leading to greatness, and I cannot say she put me out of that road in putting me where they were.  Her age?—­shall I complain of that when it is a sign she goeth shortly altogether?’

As he was thus debating he regarded the old woman stealthily, and she was in agitation, so that her joints creaked like forest branches in a wind, and the puckers of her visage moved as do billows of the sea to and fro, and the anticipations of a fair young bride are not more eager than what was visible in the old woman.  Wheedlingly she looked at him, and shaped her mouth like a bird’s bill to soften it; and she drew together her dress, to give herself the look of slimness, using all fascinations.  He thought, ’’Tis a wondrous old woman!  Marriage would seem a thing of moment to her, yet is the profit with me, and I’ll agree to it.’  So he said, ‘’Tis a pact between us, O old woman!’

Now, the eyes of the old woman brightened when she heard him, and were as the eyes of a falcon that eyeth game, hungry with red fire, and she looked brisk with impatience, laughing a low laugh and saying, ’O youth, I must claim of thee, as is usual in such cases, the kiss of contract.’

So Shibli Bagarag was mindful of what is written,

   If thou wouldst take the great leap, be ready for the little jump,

and he stretched out his mouth to the forehead of the old woman.  When he had done so, it was as though she had been illuminated, as when light is put in the hollow of a pumpkin.  Then said she, ’This is well! this is a fair beginning!  Now look, for thy fortune will of a surety follow.  Call me now sweet bride, and knocker at the threshold of hearts!’