errupting
you, but what I have long foreseen has taken place. Nothing remains of
the sums you gave me for your expenses, and all other sources of income
are also at end, having been transferred by you to others. If you wish
me to remain in your service, furnish me with the necessary funds, else
I must withdraw."

So great was Noureddin's consternation that he had not a word to say in
reply.

The friend, who had been listening behind the curtain, immediately
hastened to communicate the news to the rest of the company.

"If this is so," they said, "we must cease to come here."

Noureddin re-entering at that moment, they plainly saw, in spite of his
efforts to dissemble, that what they had heard was the truth. One by
one they rose, and each with a different excuse left the room, till
presently he found himself alone, though little suspecting the
resolution his friends had taken. Then, seeing the beautiful Persian,
he confided to her the statement of the steward, with many expressions
of regret for his own carelessness.

"Had I but followed your advice, beautiful Persian," he said, "all this
would not have happened, but at least I have this consolation, that I
have spent my fortune in the company of friends who will not desert me
in an hour of need. To-morrow I will go to them, and amongst them they
will lend me a sum sufficient to start in some business."

Accordingly next morning early Noureddin went to seek his ten friends,
who all lived in the same street. Knocking at the door of the first
and chief, the slave who opened it left him to wait in a hall while he
announced his visit to his master. "Noureddin!" he heard him exclaim
quite audibly. "Tell him, every time he calls, that I am not at home."
The same thing happened at the second door, and also at the third, and
so on with all the ten. Noureddin, much mortified, recognised too late
that he had confided in false friends, who abandoned him in his hour of
need. Overwhelmed with grief, he sought consolation from the beautiful
Persian.

"Alas, my lord," she said, "at last you are convinced of the truth of
what I foretold. There is now no other resource left but to sell your
slaves and your furniture."

First then he sold the slaves, and subsisted for a time on the
proceeds, after that the furniture was sold, and as much of it was
valuable it sufficed for some time. Finally this resource also came to
an end, and again he sought counsel from the beaut