346 THE ARABIAN NIGHTS.

the genius was invisible to the princess and the son of the grand
vizier. His form would have killed them with fright. They did
not even hear a single word of the conversation that passed
between Aladdin and him.

The sultan, wishful to learn how the princess his daughter
had slept, entered the chamber and wished her a good morning.
The son of the grand vizier, half dead with the cold he had suf-
fered all night, as soon as he heard some person opening the
door, went into the dressing-room where he had dressed himself
in the evening.

The sultan came up to the princess and kissed her between
her eyes, as is the usual custom in wishing any one a good
morning. He asked her how she had slept; but when he lifted
up his head, and looked at her with great attention, he was
extremely surprised to observe her in the most dejected state;
but being unable to get a word from her, he retired. He could
not, however, but suspect from her continued silence that some-
thing very extraordinary had happened. He went immediately
to the apartment of the sultana, to whom he mentioned the
state in which he had found the princess, and the reception she
had given him.

“J will go and see her,” added the sultana; “I am very much
deceived if she will receive me in the same manner.”

The princess related to her mother, in the most lively colours,
how, the instant after she and her husband were reclined, the
bed had been taken up and transported into an ill-furnished and
dismal chamber, where she found herself quite alone and sepa-
rated ‘rom her husband, without in the least knowing what was
become of him; and that when morning approached, her hus-
band was restored to her, and the bed again brought back to its
place in an instant of time.

The sultana listened with great attention to everything the
princess had to relate, but she could not give full credit to the
account. “You have done well, my child,” she said to the
princess, “not to inform the sultan your father of this matter.
Take care that you mention it to no one, unless you wish to be
taken for one who has lost her reason.”

The festivities in the palace continued throughout the day;
and the sultan, who did not neglect the princess, forgot nothing
that he thought might inspire her with joy.