The lady had no sooner disappeared than I perceived that love was the cause of great oversights; it had so engrossed all my thoughts; that I did not recollect she had gone off without paying the money; nor had I the consideration to ask who she was, or where she dwelt.  However, I considered that I was accountable for a large sum to the merchants, who, perhaps, would not have the patience to stay for their money; so I went to them, and made the best excuse I could, pretending that I knew the lady; but came home equally affected with love, and with the burden of such a heavy debt.

I had desired my creditors to stay eight days for their money, and, when the eight days were past, they did not fail to dun me; then I intreated them to give me eight days more, which they agreed to; and the very next day I saw the lady come to the bezestein, mounted on her mule, with the same attendants as before, and exactly at the same hour of the day.  She came straight to my shop.  I have made you stay some time, said she, but here is your money at last; carry it to a banker, and see that it is all good.  The eunuch, who brought me the money, went along with me to the banker’s, and we found it very right.  I came back again, and had the happiness of conversing with the lady till all the shops in the bezestein were open:  though we talked of ordinary things, she gave them such a turn, that they appeared new and uncommon, and convinced me that I was not mistaken in admiring her wit.

As soon as the merchants were come, and had opened their shops, I carried to the respective people the money due for their stuffs, and was readily intrusted with more which the lady had desired to see.  In short, the lady took stuffs to the value of an hundred pieces of gold, and again carried them away without paying for them:  nay, without saying one word, or informing me where she was.  I was astonished when I considered that at this rate she left me without any security of not being troubled, if she never came back again.  She has paid me, thinks I to myself, a good round sum, but she leaves me in the lurch for another that runs much deeper.  Surely she cannot be a cheat; it is not possible she can have any design to inveigle me:  the merchants do not know her, and will all come upon me.  In short, my love was not so powerful as to remove the uneasiness I felt when I reflected upon all circumstances.  A whole month passed before I heard any thing of the lady again; and during that time the alarm grew higher and higher every day.  The merchants were impatient for their money; and, to satisfy them, I was even going to sell off all I had, when the lady returned one morning with the same equipage as before.  Take your weights, said she, and weigh the gold I have brought you.  These words dispelled my fear, and inflamed my love.  Before we told down the money, she asked me several questions, and particularly if I was married?  I made answer, I never was.  Then reaching out the gold to the eunuch, let us have