The old woman obeyed, and returned with an apron full of gold, saying:
"My child, what shall I do with this fortune?"
"It is for you, my good woman, but on one condition."
The poor blind girl smiled, and from her lips fell a rose so beautiful and sweet that there had been none like it before. Mirza answered:
"Take this rose and go into the prince's city, and call out, 'Who will buy this flower? who will buy this rose?'"
"And in order to please you," said the old woman, "how much must I sell it for?"
"You must give it," said the princess, "for neither gold nor silver."
"And for what shall I sell it?" said the old woman.
"You shall demand an eye for it," said the princess.
The old woman followed the directions to the letter. When she arrived in the city of the prince, she cried out:
"Who will buy this flower? Who will buy this rose?"
At these words, Mirza's deceitful servant ran to the window of the palace and asked:
"Tell me, good woman, for what will you sell such a beautiful rose?"
"I will sell it for an eye," said the old woman.
"Heavens! what would you do with an eye?" said the maid-servant.
"Well, then," said the waiting-maid, "stay a moment;" and she ran to her room; and as she had been careful enough to save the eyes of her mistress, she took one and gave it to the old woman.
"And here is your rose," said the old woman.
At night, when the prince returned to the palace, his mother-in-law said to him:
"See this beautiful rose. There is none like it in the flower-gardens. My daughter made it with a smile."
"It came in good time," said the young prince, "but I can scarcely believe it. A thousand times I have seen your daughter smile, and nothing has fallen from her lips."
All this time, the old woman, who had sold her rose for the eye, was on her way to the Princess Mirza. But as she went along, the eye fell from her hand and was lost. She hunted for it a long time, but meanwhile the eye, apparently directed by the good fairies, made its way to the blind girl, who put it in its place and immediately she saw clearly. The old woman returned disconsolate.
"Alas! my beautiful child," she exclaimed, weeping, "I sold your rose as you directed me, but, unfortunately, the eye I received as the price escaped from my hands and I could not find it, though I hunted for it far and wide."