Page:The Arabian nights' entertainments - Longman 1898 Crown edition.djvu/29

'It would be an excellent thing to do,' returned the grand-vizir, 'but how do you propose to accomplish it?'

'My father,' answered Scheherazade, 'it is you who have to provide the Sultan daily with a fresh wife, and

SCHEHERAZADE, DINARZADE, AND THE SULTAN

I implore you, by all the affection you bear me, to allow the honour to fall upon me.'

'Have you lost your senses?' cried the grand-vizir, starting back in horror. 'What has put such a thing into your head? You ought to know by this time what it means to be the Sultan's bride!'

'Yes, my father, I know it well,' replied she, 'and I