Scene VI
Nasser. Good-day, gentlemen. Aga-Merdan, the Prince Royal begs that you will come to his house this evening and spend an hour with him. He requires your services in an important affair.
Aga-Merdan. Tell your master in reply that I am at his service. [The lackey retires. Soon afterward, Eced, the servant of the President of the Tribunal, arrives.]
Scene VII
Eced. Good-day, gentlemen. Aga-Merdan, my master invites you to dine with him this evening at the home of Hadji-Semi. He has pressing business on which he wishes to consult you.
Aga-Merdan. You may tell your master that I will be there, and consent merely to please him. [Aga-Abbas and his sister retire.]
Scene VIII
Aga-Kerim. I do not understand where this messenger of the Prince Royal and this servant of the judge came from.
Aga-Merdan. I felt that the woman might be troubled with regard to the conditions which I imposed upon her. This is the reason why I bribed these individuals to deliver such messages in her presence. I did so in order that she might imagine me to be the friend of the Prince Royal and the boon companion of the President of the Tribunal, in order that she might recover her spirits. I was afraid that otherwise she would not dare to make her allegations at the hearing of the case, and so we should be nonsuited.
Aga-Kerim. By God, your idea was a happy one, but at the hearing of the case we must keep our eye on her. If possible we must manage that she gives her evidence after I have brought on the witnesses. You will promise her as her share 500 tomans; fifty in cash, and the balance later. The witnesses shall each have thirty tomans; fifteen in cash, and fifteen afterward. We will give up this sum after winning the lawsuit, in order that the inspector may not poke his nose into our business; but you know that the affair cannot be made to succeed without his aid, he is so crafty. You know he has already on one occasion detected our game. We cannot cheat him.