“Then shall the doting damsel, when her parent maketh fast the door, creep out some other way.
“And they all shall come trooping as with the voice of birds to court thy smiles and thy manners, and thy years shall be as the silk of the spider in thy way.”
Then was he exceedingly glad because of the crone’s advice, and he went away to his own home rejoicing.
ATTENDING TO BUSINESS.
And on the morrow he arose before it was yet day, and saddled his mule, and journeyed to the great city by the sea, and lodged at the house of a friend.
And he made haste to purchase diamonds, and rubies, and emeralds, and onyx-stones, and sapphires, and put massive rings upon his fingers, and seals upon his chain.
And even as the crone had directed, he scrupled not to stand in the hall-ways, and in the market-places, and in the houses of exchange, and sought to be observed of the people, and lived as a man having great possessions.
And not many days after, a fair lady of that place looking from her window, saw that the stranger shone like the mid-day sun, even so much that her heart was warmed.
So she called the keeper of the house aside and questioned him concerning the stranger, saying:—