r
enemies, will devise means to strip you as naked as my hand. Perhaps
there is no necessity to do all the lord high treasurer advises; but you
might spread chintz in the street, velvet at the alighting spot,
brocade in the court yard, and shawls in the room; that will not be very
expensive.'

'You do not say ill,' said the doctor: 'I might perhaps manage that. We
have chintz in the house, which was intended for the women's trowsers;
that will probably do. A patient gave me a piece of Ispahan velvet the
other day; I can sell my last dress of honour for some brocade; and two
or three of my wife's shawls will suffice for the room. By the blessing
of Ali, that is settled.'

'Ah, but the harem,' exclaimed I; 'the Shah must go there. You know it
brings good luck to be looked at by the king, and your women must appear
well-dressed on the occasion.

'Oh, as for that,' said the doctor, 'they can borrow; they can borrow
anything they like from their friends--jewels, trowsers, jackets,
shawls--they can get whatever they want.'

Not so, said my lady the khanum. As soon as this arrangement was
mentioned to her, she protested against it; she called her husband a low
born, niggardly carle; one unfit for the honour of possessing her for
a wife; and insisted upon his conducting himself on this occasion in
a manner worthy of the high distinction that was about to be conferred
upon him. It was in vain to contend against her; and therefore the
preparations were made upon a scale far exceeding what the doctor had
intended; and every individual of his house appeared to be actuated by
only one feeling, that of making him refund all that money which he so
long and so unpitifully had extorted from others.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Concerning the manner of the Shah's reception; of the present made him,
and the conversation which ensued.

On the morning of the day upon which this great event was to happen (a
day which had been duly settled as auspicious by the astrologers) the
note of preparation was heard throughout the whole of Mirza Ahmak's
dwelling. The king's tent-pitchers had taken possession of the saloon
of audience in which he was to hold his court, where they spread
fresh carpets and prepared the royal musnud,[53] covering it with
a magnificent shawl. They threw water over the court yard, set the
fountains playing, and fitted on a new curtain to the front of the
building. The king's gardeners also came and decked the premises wit