Opening, part 34 · page 21 2101But even prayer did not restore peace to my troubled spirit, and I could not face my wife until I had made up my mind what future course I should pursue in regard to her.102I therefore spent the morning roaming about from one garden to another, turning over various plans for compelling my wife to give up her horrible ways; I thought of using violence to make her submit, but felt reluctant to be unkind to her.103Besides, I had an instinct that gentle means had the best chance of success; so, a little soothed, I turned towards home, which I reached about the hour of dinner.104As soon as I appeared, Amina ordered dinner to be served, and we sat down together.105As usual, she persisted in only picking a few grains of rice, and I resolved to speak to her at once of what lay so heavily on my heart.106"Amina," I said, as quietly as possible, "you must have guessed the surprise I felt, when the day after our marriage you declined to eat anything but a few morsels of rice, and altogether behaved in such a manner that most husbands would have been deeply wounded.107However I had patience with you, and only tried to tempt your appetite by the choicest dishes I could invent, but all to no purpose.108Still, Amina, it seems to me that there be some among them as sweet to the taste as the flesh of a corpse?"1 2← previousOpening, part 33next →Opening, part 35↑ back to The Arabian Nights EntertainmentsThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/34/page/2/