He longed to greet her, and gazed
intently on her face, which was radiant with light and brilliancy.
Then the tirewomen took off her veil and displayed her in all her
seven toilettes before Badr al-Din Hasan, wholly neglecting the Gobbo,
who sat moping alone, and when she opened her eyes, she said, "O
Allah, make this man my goodman and deliver me from the evil of this
hunchbacked groom." As soon as they had made an end of this part of
the ceremony they dismissed the wedding guests, who went forth, women,
children and all, and none remained save Hasan and the hunchback,
whilst the tirewomen led the bride into an inner room to change her
garb and gear and get her ready for the bridegroom.
Thereupon Quasimodo came up to Badr al-Din Hasan and said: "O my
lord, thou hast cheered us this night with thy good company and
overwhelmed us with thy kindness and courtesy, but now why not get
thee up and go?" "Bismillah," he answered. "In Allah's name, so be
it!" And rising, he went forth by the door, where the Ifrit met him
and said, "Stay in thy stead, O Badr al-Din, and when the hunchback
goes out to the closet of ease, go in without losing time and seat
thyself in the alcove, and when the bride comes say to her: ''Tis I am
thy husband, for the King devised this trick only fearing for thee the
evil eye, and he whom thou sawest is but a syce, a groom, one of our
stablemen.
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