When they came to the edge, they nimbly, one after another, sprang
up to the window, from whence Queen Gulnare had retired to make
room for them. King Saleh, the queen her mother, and the rest of
her relations, embraced her tenderly, with tears in their eyes, on
their first entrance.
After Queen Gulnare had received them with all imaginable honour,
and made them sit down upon a sofa, the queen her mother addressed
herself to her: 'Daughter,' said she, 'I am overjoyed to see you
again after so long an absence; and I am confident that your
brother and your relations are no less so. Your leaving us without
acquainting anybody with it involved us in inexpressible concern;
and it is impossible to tell you how many tears we have shed upon
that account. We know of no other reason that could induce you to
take such a surprising step, but what your brother told us of the
conversation that passed between him and you. The advice he gave
you seemed to him at that time very advantageous for settling you
handsomely in the world, and very suitable to the then posture of
our affairs. If you had not approved of his proposal, you ought not
to have been so much alarmed; and, give me leave to tell you, you
took the thing in a quite different light from what you ought to
have done.
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