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whereupon he awoke from his delusion and shook off his infatuation and knew that it was his wife herself who had given him the change and outwitted him with her wiles. He wept for that which had betided, but kept his affair secret, so none of his enemies might exult over him nor any of his friends be troubled, knowing that, if he discovered his secret, it would bring him nought but affront and blame from the folk; wherefore he said to himself, ‘O Ubeid, conceal that which hath befallen thee of trouble and affliction; it behoveth thee to do in accordance with the saying of the poet:
If a man’s breast be straitened with a secret he doth hide, Yet straiter’s his who to the folk his secret doth confide.’
Then he locked up his house and gave his shop in charge of one of his journeymen, to whom said he, ‘My friend the young merchant hath invited me and my wife to accompany him to Cairo, that we may divert ourselves with the sight of the city, and swears that he will not depart except he carry us with him. So, O my son, I make thee my steward in the shop, and if the king ask for me, say thou to him, “He is gone with his wife to the Holy House of God [at Mecca].”’ Then he sold some of his effects and bought mules and camels and slaves. Moreover, he bought a slave-girl and placing her in a litter, set out from Bassora after ten days. His friends took leave of him and none doubted but that he had taken his wife and gone on the pilgrimage, and the folk rejoiced in this, for that God had delivered them from being shut up in the mosques and houses every Friday. Quoth some of them, ‘God grant he may never return to Bassora, so we may no more be shut up in the mosques and houses every Friday!’ For that this usage had caused the people of Bassora exceeding vexation. Quoth another, ‘Methinks he will not return, by reason of the praying of the people
