Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 4.djvu/95

get clear of this troubleſome Man this Day. In the Name of the living God, ſaid I, leave off your unſeaſonable Jargon; go to your Friends, drink, eat, and be merry with them, and leave me at my Liberty to go to mine. I have a Mind to go alone, I have no Occaſion for Company: Beſides I muſt needs tell you, the Place to which I go is not a Place where you can be received; no Body muſt come there but I. You jeſt, Sir, ſaid he, if your Friends have invited you to a Feaſt, why ſhould you hinder me to accompany you? You’ll pleaſe them, I am ſure, by carrying thither a Man that can ſpeak comically like me, and knows how to divert Company agreeably. But, ſay what you will, the thing is reſolved upon; I will go along with you in ſpight of your Teeth.

Theſe Words, Gentlemen, made me very uneaſy. How ſhall I get rid of this curſed Barber, thought I to my ſelf? If I do not ſnub him roundly, we ſhall ne’er have done conteſting. Betides, I heard then the firſt call to Noon-Prayers; and it was time for me to go. In fine, I reſolved to ſay nothing at all, and to make as if I conſented to his Propoſal. By that time he had done ſhaving me; then I ſaid to him, take ſome of my Servants to carry theſe Proviſions along with you, and return hither; I’ll ſtay for you, and ſhall not go without you.

At laſt he went, and Idreſs’d my ſelf nimbly.

I heard the laft Call to Prayers, and made haſte to ſet out, but the malicious Barber, jealous of my Intention, went with my Servants only within Sight of the Houſe, and ſtood there till he ſaw ’em enter his Houſe; having hid himſelf upon the turning of a Street with intent to obſerve and follow me. In fine, when I arrived at the Cadis’s Door, I looked back and ſaw him at the Head of the Street, which fretted me to the laſt Degree.

The Cadis’s Door was half open, and as I went in ſaw an old Woman waiting for me, who after ſhe had ſhut the Door, conducted me to the Chamber of the young Lady I was in Loye with; but we had ſcarce begun our Interview when we heard a Noiſe in the Streets. The young Lady put her Head to the Window, and ſaw through the Grate, that it was the Cadis her Father returning already from Prayers. At the ſame time I looked through the Window and ſaw the Barber ſitting over-againſt the Houle, in the