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 WOMEN 
 
 MARMADUKE 
 PICKTHALL
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 VEILED WOMEN
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 BY 
 
 MARMADUKE PICKTHALL 
 
 NEW YORK 
 DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 
 
 1913
 
 Copyright 1913, 
 BY DUFFIELD AND COMPANY
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 "If good the news, O bird, alight and welcome; 
 If bad, draw up thy claws and hie away ! " 
 
 AT the corner of a lofty housetop overlooking a 
 great part of Cairo, a woman stood with arms 
 uplifted and solemnly addressed a crow which 
 seemed about to settle. The bird, as if the mean- 
 ing of the chant had reached him, turned in the air 
 with clumsy flapping, and withdrew, rising to join 
 the hundreds of his kind which circled high above 
 the city bathed in early sunlight. The woman 
 shook her fist at his receding shape, glass bracelets 
 tinkling on her strong brown arm. She sighed, 
 " The curse of God on thy religion, O thou faithless 
 messenger ! " then, with a laugh, turned round to 
 join the group of slave-girls, her companions, sent 
 up to lay out herbs to dry upon the roof. These 
 had watched her invocation of the crow with know- 
 ing grins. But one, a young Circassian, who sat 
 watching while the others worked, betrayed surprise 
 and asked the meaning of the little ceremony. 
 At that there was much giggling. 
 1 
 
 1308965
 
 2 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " Knowest thou not, O flower? It is the woman's 
 secret ! " 
 
 " Secret of secrets, all unknown of men ! " 
 
 " By Allah, men know nothing of it. In sh' Allah, 
 they will be astonished some day ! " 
 
 " O Hind, relate the story ! Our honey, our ga- 
 zelle, Gulbeyzah, has not heard it." 
 
 Thus urged, the one who had adjured the crow, a 
 free servant of the house, obsequious towards the 
 slaves, its pampered children, explained as she knelt 
 down again to work : 
 
 " In the name of Allah, thus it is related : Know, 
 O my sweet, that, in the days of our lord Noah 
 (may God bless him), after the flood, the men and 
 women were in equal numbers and on equal terms. 
 What then? Why, naturally they began disput- 
 ing which should have the right to choose in 
 marriage, and, as the race increased, enjoy more 
 mates than one. The men gave judgment on their 
 own behalf, as usual; and when the women mads 
 polite objection, turned and beat them. What 
 was to be done? The case was thus: the men 
 were stronger than the women, but there exists One 
 stronger than the men Allah Most High. The 
 women sought recourse to Allah's judgment; but 
 O calamity ! by ill advice they made the crow 
 their messenger. The crow flew off towards 
 Heaven, carrying their dear petition in his claws, 
 and from that day to this he brings no answer. 
 But God is everliving and most merciful; a thou-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 3 
 
 sand years with him seem but an hour. Perhaps 
 he does but hold our favour over, as might a son 
 of Adam, till the evening for reflection, to grant it 
 at the last. In sh' Allah ! " 
 
 " In sh'Allah ! " came the chorus of a dozen voices ; 
 followed by a general laugh when Gulbeyzah, the 
 Circassian, yawned and sighed, " Four goodly hus- 
 bands all my own ! O Lord, give quickly ! " 
 
 " That is the reason," Hind concluded, " why 
 good women have a word to say to crows who seek 
 to settle. Any one of them may be the bearer of 
 the blessed edict. The reason as related Allah 
 knows ! " 
 
 " Good news and hopeful, by my maidenhood ! 
 the best I ever heard ! " chuckled Gulbeyzah, repos- 
 ing with her back against the parapet. She then 
 remained a long while silent, lost in day-dreams. 
 
 The hour was after sunrise of a spring morning 
 in the twelve hundred and eightieth year of the 
 Hegirah, the second of the reign of Ismail. The 
 house was that of Muhammad Pasha Salih, a 
 Turk by origin but born and bred in Egypt, who 
 held a high position in the government. The girls, 
 their task accomplished, sat down on their heels, 
 each with her tray of basketwork before her, and 
 sniffed the breeze, in no haste to return indoors. 
 
 " Praise to Allah," one exclaimed with fervour, 
 " we escape for an hour from that Gehennum there 
 below. Never have I seen the lady Fitnah so en- 
 raged. Her wrath is not so much because her son
 
 4 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 desires the English governess, as because the Pasha 
 sees no hindrance to the match. I tremble every time 
 I have to go to her, lest in her fury she should dam- 
 age my desirability." 
 
 " Praise be to Allah, I am not her property," re- 
 plied another, " but that of her durrah, the great 
 lady. Yet I know her for a good and pious crea- 
 ture, not likely to be so enraged without rare cause. 
 They say this foreign teacher has bewitched the 
 young man. He is mad. He flung himself before 
 her in the passage as she came from driving. She 
 spurned him, and they bore him, senseless, to his 
 chamber, where for two days he weeps and moans, 
 refusing nourishment. It is enchantment, evidently, 
 for the girl is ugly." 
 
 " Nay, by Allah, she is white and nicely rounded. 
 But shameless ! But an infidel ! " 
 
 " She can change her faith." 
 
 " As easily as dung can change its odour ! " 
 
 " Gulbeyzah here is whiter and more appetizing." 
 
 " Well, God alone knows what she is or is not. 
 This is sure : I have no itching to go down into the 
 house while Fitnah Khanum rages." 
 
 "Nor I!" "Nor I!" exclaimed the rest with 
 feeling. 
 
 The morning clamour of the city came up to them 
 as a soothing murmur. Minarets dreamed round 
 them in the sun-haze which was rosy at its heart but 
 in the distance pearly with a tinge of brown. On
 
 VEILED WOMEN 5 
 
 one hand open country might be seen, green fields and 
 palm trees crowding to the desert wave on which three 
 pyramids stood out, minute as ciphers ; on the other, 
 ending the long ridge of the Mucattam Hill, arose the 
 Citadel in smoky shadow, its Turkish dome and min- 
 arets, its towers and ramparts, appearing like a city 
 of the sky. Here and there among the housetops 
 a small cloud of doves went up, fluttered a moment 
 and subsided peacefully. Kites hovered, crows were 
 circling, in the upper air. Gulbeyzah watched their 
 evolutions dreamily. 
 
 " Allah defend us from the liberty of Prankish 
 women ! " she remarked at length. " I could not bear 
 it. To meet the stare of all men were too dreadful. 
 My maidenhood would flush my brain and kill me. 
 O pure shame! And yet they choose what men they 
 like, the fact is known. In sh'Allah, the great fa- 
 vour, when the crow does bring it, will not destroy 
 our blessed privacy." 
 
 " In sh'Allah, truly ! " answered Hind, with ve- 
 hemence. " Fear nothing, O beloved ; God is great- 
 est ! Their freedom is from Satan, their liege lord 
 the curse of Allah on him ! It is a travesty of 
 God's work, like all he does. Is it not known when 
 Allah made the cow, he tried his best to do the same, 
 but got no farther than the water-buffalo. All 
 Heaven mocked him. Our charter, when it comes, 
 will be perfection." 
 
 " Talking of foreign women makes me curious to
 
 know how things are going, down below. Has the 
 governess consented to give life to Yusuf? Has the 
 Pasha quieted the lady Fitnah? " 
 
 " Nothing could quiet her, unless it were the quick 
 expulsion of the Englishwoman. Why did she ever 
 have her children taught the lore of infidels? The 
 fault is hers! She hoped to keep the Bey from hon- 
 ourable marriage, chaining his fancy with some slave- 
 girl, her own creature." 
 
 " With me, say plainly ! " laughed Gulbe} 7 zah, with 
 a yawn. " I was brought into the house with that in- 
 tention. Yet not her creature, for Murjanah Khanum 
 is my mistress, and she would have seen to it that I 
 was well respected. If the governess has pity on him 
 which I think not likely as soon would the wild 
 serpent wed the dove my lady must provide me 
 with a proper husband. I have no mind to wither as 
 a fruit untasted." She yawned again. " Will no 
 one go into the house and bring me news ? " 
 
 Up leapt a little Galla girl, a child as yet unveiled, 
 all eyes and teeth with glee in the adventure. 
 
 " I go, O lady ! I am not afraid. I will even 
 enter the selamlik. I will find out everything." 
 
 " Be very careful, O Fatumah, lest old Fitnah seize 
 thee. She would rip up thy belly and pluck out thy 
 entrails did she catch thee spying ! " 
 
 The little black girl laughed and made an impu- 
 dent grimace. 
 
 " And then the eunuchs ! They will surely beat 
 thee."
 
 VEILED WOMEN 7 
 
 " By Allah, they must catch me first. Sawwab 
 adores me, and the others are too slow." 
 
 " Good. Run, ere curiosity consume me ! " 
 
 The little negress shot off like an arrow. Down 
 dark, malodorous stairs, through empty corridors, 
 she glanced, incarnate mischief. In a pleasure court 
 of the harim, where orange trees in tubs grew round 
 a pool, she stopped to listen for the voice of Fitnah. 
 It came from an apartment on her right. Straight 
 forward, where she wished to go, the coast seemed 
 clear. Springing on tiptoe, she plucked a spray of 
 blossom from the nearest tree; then ran on down a 
 passage through the ornate screen, the boundary of 
 the women's quarters, where a eunuch tried in fun to 
 stop her ; and in sight of a great hall where men were 
 lounging, knocked at a door. 
 
 The word had scarce been given ere she glided in 
 and held out the sprig of orange-blossom to the Eng- 
 lish governess, with every muscle of her body fawn- 
 ing, smiling. Without a look, she read the stranger's 
 face, perceived she had been crying lately but now 
 looked exultant, observed the order of the room, the 
 foreign furniture; and then, before the English- 
 woman could find words to thank her for the pretty 
 offering, kissed a white hand which proved as hot as 
 fire, and darted out as noiselessly as she had entered. 
 
 As she was flitting back across the garden-court, 
 she heard a male voice cry : 
 
 " Be silent, woman ; or, by the Prophet, I shall 
 have to beat thee ! "
 
 8 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Crouching behind a tub, she listened eagerly. 
 But though a wrangle was in progress not far off 
 between the Pasha and his wife, the lady Fitnah, 
 she could glean no more than the main tenor of it 
 from the voices, of which the man's was irritated and 
 the woman's mad. 
 
 At last the Pasha shouted: 
 
 " It is finished. No word more. I go straight to 
 the Consul. Appeal to the Cadi, I beseech thee ; of 
 thy kindness, do so! He will tell thee, just as I do, 
 that thou art demented." 
 
 Another minute and he crossed the court, wearing 
 his best tarbush and his official garb of black frock- 
 coat and narrow trousers a thing unheard of at 
 that early hour. 
 
 Having seen him pass to the selamlik, Fatumah 
 ran like lightning through the dim old house, till, 
 breathless, she emerged in dazzling sunlight and 
 flopped down on the roof again beside the others. 
 
 "Well, what news?" they clamoured. 
 
 " Great news ! " Fatumah panted. " Only listen ! 
 The English governess is going to marry Yusuf Bey, 
 and she has islamed ! " 
 
 " Praise to Allah ! " cried the others in amaze- 
 ment. " A Frankish woman convert ! A great 
 miracle ! " 
 
 " The Pasha goes this minute to the English Con- 
 sul, to confer with him and make arrangements for 
 the ceremony."
 
 VEILED WOMEN 9 
 
 " Allahu akbar ! Is it possible ? But what says 
 Fitnah?" 
 
 " What can she say, the poor one ? The command 
 is on her." 
 
 " But, for the love of Allah, say, how didst thou 
 learn all this? " 
 
 Fatumah shut her lips tight, looking preternatur- 
 ally cunning. 
 
 " Ha, ha ! " was all she answered. 
 
 " Her tale is nonsense ! She is making game of 
 us," exclaimed Gulbeyzah, breaking out in laughter. 
 " She was not gone five minutes, that is known. 
 Thou shalt be paid full measure, little poison-flower! 
 Confess now that thy story is all lies ! " 
 
 The marvel was that every word proved true.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MUHAMMAD PASHA SALIH was intensely worried. 
 As he drove toward the English Consul's office, he let 
 deep furrows ravage his benignant brow, and combed 
 his long grey beard with nervous fingers. The ever- 
 shifting crowds, the eager faces, the laden camels 
 rolling on like ships upon the sea of heads ; the water- 
 sellers clinking their brass cups, the cries of sales- 
 men and the floating odours all the pageant of the 
 streets and all their rumour, which filled the sunlight 
 and seemed one with it, went by unnoticed. 
 
 In youth he had been wedded to a noble Turkish 
 lady, the sweetest and most gentle of companions. 
 Never an angry word had passed between them. 
 But, alas ! when all her children died soon after birth, 
 Murjanah Khanum had grown melancholy and re- 
 tired from life. She still dwelt in his house, was still 
 the nominal head of his harim; but for more than 
 twenty years she had been dead to pleasure. At 
 first he had amused himself with pretty slaves, being 
 reluctant to infringe her dignity of only wife. Then, 
 at her instance, for she feared debauch for him, he 
 had espoused the daughter of a wealthy native, 
 whom the caprice of a former ruler had exalted. 
 The marriage, besides raising his importance, had 
 
 10
 
 VEILED WOMEN 11 
 
 brought him four male children. Yet at this mo- 
 ment, with the curses of the termagant still ringing 
 in his ears, he almost wished he had let well alone 
 and kept to concubines. 
 
 Allah knew that Yvisuf's malady was not uncom- 
 mon at his age; the cure self-evident. The govern- 
 ess was not a heathen. She was of those who have 
 received the Scriptures, therefore marriageable. 
 Moreover, being, as he shrewdly guessed, of no con- 
 sideration in her native land, she might be tempted 
 by a life of wealth and ease. To save his son from 
 death, he had besought the Englishwoman, imagin- 
 ing that her consent would fill the house with joy- 
 cries. Yet when the cause was won, the only pos- 
 sible objection cancelled by the girl's unlooked-for 
 turn to El Islam, behold ! the lady Fitnah's grief was 
 changed to fury. The wrangle with her had per- 
 turbed him at a moment when he stood in need of all 
 his wits to brave the Consul. Well, Allah saw what 
 trials he endured! 
 
 The carriage drew up in a quiet alley, before a 
 gateway ornamented with a coloured picture of lions 
 great and small in funny attitudes. Two Cawasses 
 in silver-braided jackets with long dangling sleeves 
 rose from stools beside the threshold and saluted. 
 Muhammad Pasha passed between them, crossing a 
 courtyard to a second door, wide open like the first. 
 There, in a whitewashed room, two Copts sat at a 
 table, cutting pens. They both sprang up at recog- 
 nition of the visitor and strove to kiss his hands,
 
 12 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 which he prevented by patting each upon the shoulder 
 kindly. 
 
 "Is the Consul busy, O my children?" he in- 
 quired. " I have an errand of importance. Please 
 inform him." 
 
 " Upon my head. I go at once, by Allah ! " 
 
 One of the Copts leapt to an inner door and 
 knocked thereon. Enjoined to enter, he opened it 
 just far enough for the introduction of his body, and 
 slipped in. Anon returning in the same respectful 
 manner, he beckoned to the Pasha. Then he flung 
 the door wide open, and stood aside, with eyes down- 
 cast and hands demurely folded. 
 
 Muhammad Pasha entered with a beating heart. 
 His mission was of essence delicate, and he was anx- 
 ious to avoid all odour of offence towards a foreign 
 representative possessing influence. Having touched 
 hands with the Consul and exchanged greetings, he 
 sat down on the extreme edge of a chair, and toying 
 with his amber rosary, thus broached his business : 
 
 " Monsieur le Consul," the conversation was in 
 French of the Byzantine school, " you remember 
 the young lady whom you were good enough to 
 recommend as an instructress for my children. Can 
 you inform me of her origin, her previous history? " 
 
 " Excellency, I only know what she herself con- 
 fided : that she was educated at a religious institution 
 for poor children of good family. She has no rel- 
 atives. She came here to be governess in an English 
 house which, by the father's sudden death, was
 
 VEILED WOMEN 13 
 
 brought to poverty two weeks before she came. She 
 found herself here without a situation and with little 
 money ; and as she was well recommended and im- 
 pressed me as respectable, I thought of you, remem- 
 bering that you desired an English governess. I 
 trust that you are satisfied of her efficiency? " 
 
 " Altogether. She has been a month now in our 
 house, and almost is become like one of us. She is 
 so charming. It is there, the trouble. She is ravish- 
 ing. Monsieur le Consul," here the Pasha changed 
 his tone for that of one who bares his heart, discard- 
 ing courtesies, " I am very gravely troubled. The 
 anxiety I suffer cuts digestion and gives me frightful 
 belly-pains. My son adores this demoiselle, and she 
 adores him. The affair deprives me of all taste for 
 food. You see my sufferings ! " 
 
 " Continue, Excellency ! " said the Consul grimly. 
 He got up from his chair and paced the room. The 
 Pasha kept the corner of an eye upon him, as he 
 proceeded : 
 
 " What can I do? The demoiselle has been se- 
 cluded from my household, as I promised you. But 
 youth leaps boundaries; love can speak through 
 walls. My son has seen her in the passages their 
 eyes have met What know I? Youth is fatal." 
 
 Here the Pasha wiped his eyes. 
 
 " Monsieur le Consul, when I heard of this two 
 days ago, I put my son in prison ; I went myself and 
 reasoned with the demoiselle. I have reasoned with 
 them both, entreated, threatened; but without result.
 
 14. VEILED WOMEN 
 
 I fear my son will die if he may not espouse her. 
 The demoiselle implores me not to cast her forth. 
 She says it is so touching ! that we are her only 
 friends, that she never met with kindness till she came 
 to us." 
 
 " Beg her to come this afternoon and see me," pro- 
 nounced the Englishman, whose face had darkened 
 by perceptible gradations as he listened. 
 
 " That is precisely what I come to ask : that you 
 will scold her. God knows how the responsibility 
 has weighed upon me. She is not the match I should 
 myself have chosen for my son; but still I should be 
 glad of the alliance, because of the esteem I have for 
 all the English. I stand impartial in the case and 
 greatly worried." 
 
 " Thank you, Excellency. Send her to me this 
 afternoon. Is there anything else? " 
 
 The Pasha had already risen to depart. 
 
 " One thing." He dropped his voice to a stage 
 whisper. " In the frenzy of her love she asks to be 
 of our religion. She has made an oath of her con- 
 version before witnesses. (The Consul swore.) 
 But have no care. We will forget it, if " - the 
 Pasha laid great stress on the condition, and for 
 once looked boldly in the other's eyes " if, after 
 consultation with you, she should wish to recant." 
 
 " But you say that there are witnesses to her con- 
 version," cried the Frank, with bitterness. " I 
 fail to see how it can be forgotten. There would be 
 a riot."
 
 VEILED WOMEN 15 
 
 " The witnesses are of my house," rejoined the 
 Pasha suavely. " My command is guarantee of 
 their discretion." 
 
 " Send her to me ! " The final words were uttered 
 from tight lips beneath a formidable frown, as the 
 Consul flung the door wide open for the Turk's de- 
 parture. 
 
 " Sont-ils fanatiques, ces brutes-la? Peuh!" re- 
 spired the Pasha, shaking the dust from off his boots 
 as he regained his carriage. " The girl will have a 
 cruel hour, poor floweret! That dog would like to 
 kill her. But, God be praised, the law of El Islam 
 is still sufficient to protect a convert in a Muslim 
 land ! " 
 
 His thoughts of the lone foreign girl were full of 
 kindness. She was his daughter. He would care 
 for her true happiness. And then the thought of 
 Fitnah's rage, recurring, caused him to frown, and 
 swear, and gnaw his underlip.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IMMEDIATELY on his return to his own house, Mu- 
 hammad Pasha sent a eunuch to announce his coming 
 to the lady Fitnah. He found her lying on a couch 
 in her state room. Two slaves, who had been busy 
 fanning her, retired before him. Seeing she lay still 
 with eyes closed as if quite exhausted, he drew near 
 and whispered: 
 
 " Now, in sh' Allah, O beloved, thou wilt hear my 
 reasons." 
 
 .She opened great brown eyes, bloodshot with 
 wrath, and glared at him a moment. 
 
 " Well, what news ? " she asked, with studied cold- 
 ness. 
 
 The Pasha then embarked upon his story; but, at 
 mention of the Consul, she sprang up with rage 
 renewed, expectorating: 
 
 " Curse thy father ! * She will see the Consul,' 
 sayest thou? The Consul! May the Consul and 
 his whole race rot with agony ! It is simply to evade 
 a duty which is thine and thine alone. Eject her 
 from the house at once, thou paltry coward ! She 
 will kill our son. I know thy guile, by Allah ! Thou 
 wilt say, ' The Consul orders her to marry Yusuf . 
 We must obey the Consul,' O salvation ! when 
 
 16
 
 VEILED WOMEN 17 
 
 all the while thyself art father of the mischief. Oh, 
 let her not come here or, by my fruitfulness ! these 
 hands shall cling to her and not leave hold till they 
 have made her so that no man could desire her." 
 
 Expostulation proving vain, her lord retired in 
 great annoyance. He had to fear a scandal in his 
 house, an inquisition by the Consul, ignominy, if 
 Yusuf's mother came in contact with the English 
 lady. 
 
 In this dilemma, as in every other which con- 
 cerned the household, he went for counsel to his only 
 love and first of wives. He sent a herald of his com- 
 ing to Murjanah Khanum, and after a decent interval 
 repaired to her apartments. She received him in a 
 large room, with no other solid furniture than a low 
 desk on which a manuscript of the Coran lay open; 
 but exquisitely clean and sweet, a contrast to those 
 quarters of the house where Fitnah reigned. The 
 windows were constructed of the finest lattice-work, 
 which made the light within seem rare and delicate. 
 Murjanah, old but stately, fondled her lord's hand. 
 
 " Thy face is careworn," she exclaimed, perusing 
 it. " In sh'Allah, all the news is good." 
 
 " In sh'Allah," he replied mechanically. " But 
 Allah knows that I am greatly troubled. I know not 
 what to do." And he proceeded to describe the mad- 
 ness of the lady Fitnah. At the tale's conclusion, a 
 light laugh surprised him. 
 
 " Thou askest what to do," exclaimed Murjanah, 
 " when there is danger that a foolish woman, mad
 
 18 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 with jealousy, may harm a guest of ours! Hear the 
 word of Allah : ' When ye have cause to fear their 
 disobedience, ye shall reprimand them, ye shall banish 
 them to beds apart, and ye shall beat them.' Is not 
 that plain? Beat her! It is thy sacred duty. No, 
 no, she will not cry against thee to the Cadi. She 
 will hide her fault. All women look to men for 
 government, and if it is withheld, have cause of grief. 
 Trust me, beloved, there is no good woman who would 
 not rather suffer stripes occasionally than grow for 
 lack of them into a shrieking harridan. Fitnah 
 Khanum is my durrah, and I love her truly, as the 
 mother of our darling children, and for many virtues. 
 Still I say to thee on this occasion : beat her soundly. 
 Bestow on her a perfect beating, O my soul ! " 
 
 The Pasha kissed his old wife's hand submissively, 
 and went forth from her presence with a face of awe. 
 The high proceeding needed courage, for a man so 
 kindly. He went to the small chamber where the 
 eunuchs sat when not on duty, and called, " Sawwab ! 
 Meymun! Bring me a big kurbaj. Attend me, 
 both of you ! " 
 
 The silent, swift obedience of those servants 
 showed the impression made by his unusual sternness. 
 Their help was necessary that the scene to come 
 might wear the aspect of an execution, not a struggle. 
 
 Whip in hand, Muhammad Pasha crossed a court- 
 yard and entered a small room remote from others. 
 
 " Bring Fitnah Khanum hither secretly ! " he told 
 the eunuchs.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 19 
 
 Sawwab, the fat, was seized with trembling; while 
 Meymun, a tall, gaunt creature, gave a deathlike 
 grin. They sped, however. Three minutes had not 
 passed before the lady Fitnah, deftly bound and 
 gagged, was borne into the lonely chamber and the 
 door was shut. 
 
 Half an hour later, Muhammad Pasha Salih sat 
 conversing with the English lady, preparing her 
 intelligence to meet the Consul's arguments, which he 
 forewarned her would be all misstatements born of 
 blind fanaticism. When married to Yusuf, he as- 
 sured her, and himself believed it, she would hardly 
 know the difference from an English home.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE English girl, meanwhile, experienced a passion- 
 ate elation, like new life. The Pasha's exhortations 
 were not needed. Rebellion, which had always lurked 
 beneath her trained subservience, now clothed her in 
 its flames and made her terrible for any one who 
 dared assail her new-found pride. 
 
 What had she to regret? From childhood she had 
 been repressed, humiliated, and ordered to be thank- 
 ful for bare daily bread. In Christian families her 
 lot had been unenviable. Here, in this Muslim 
 household, she was somebody. The month spent 
 here had been the happiest in her life. But, bred up 
 to regard employers as a race apart, impressed, 
 moreover, by the grandeur of the house and by the 
 rank of Pasha, she had never dreamt of being 
 thought an equal by her entertainers. When Yusuf 
 Bey, whom she had noticed for his beauty, assailed 
 her in the hall, she had imagined his intentions far 
 from honourable, judging from past experience in 
 English houses. She had fled to her own rooms, 
 ashamed and angry, while the image of his face 
 alight with passion remained to trouble her against 
 her will. When the Pasha came and begged her in 
 most flattering terms to condescend to marry his un- 
 
 20
 
 VEILED WOMEN 21 
 
 worthy son, she nearly swooned. All her resistance 
 sprang from incredulity. When once convinced that 
 the demand was earnest, she gave way with grateful 
 tears. Then her resolve became a living faith. It 
 was to break the bondage of the past completely, to 
 cast in her lot for ever with these friends who wanted 
 her. 
 
 They were wealthy, of exalted rank, and yet they 
 wanted her. They thought her lovely, who had al- 
 ways been esteemed entirely plain, with her squat 
 figure, apple cheeks, and sandy hair. The sleekest 
 youth in all the world desired her. It was so marvel- 
 lous that she was forced to rub her eyes and fix their 
 gaze on homely objects to dispel the sense of some 
 enchantment. The difference of religion gave her no 
 concern; indeed, the change was welcome, she had 
 been so cramped by English pietism. In this mood, 
 she was fire against the Consul. A world of hap- 
 piness was opened suddenly, and there were those 
 who would debar her from it. Woe betide them! 
 
 The Pasha himself escorted her to where a harim 
 carriage waited. Sawwab the eunuch held the door 
 for her. 
 
 " The carriage will be there to bring you back," 
 the Pasha told her. " I have ordered the servants 
 by no means to return without you, upon pain of 
 death." 
 
 The implied suspicion that she might be kidnapped 
 made her laugh. 
 
 " Remember, my son's life is in your hands
 
 22 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 such pretty hands ! His earthly happiness is trusted 
 to this carriage, all too vile to hold so sweet a burden. 
 Day and night he dreams of nothing but your 
 charms. If your mind changes he will surely die." 
 
 She laughed and kissed her fingers to the dear old 
 man, as she stepped up into the carriage. The 
 eunuch slammed the door, which was close-shuttered, 
 leaving her in perfumed shade. A burning blush 
 suffused her as she thought of Yusuf his strained, 
 eager face, his yearning lips, beheld that once to 
 haunt her consciousness, a naked shape of love. But 
 pride was uppermost in all her thoughts just then 
 pride in the comfortable carriage, the attentive serv- 
 ants pride in her new-found value, in her new- 
 found relatives, and in the daring resolution she had 
 made to break with England. The foreign clamour 
 of the streets, the curious, heady odours, flattered her 
 with a sense of strange adventure. 
 
 Radiant, she alighted at the gate which bore the 
 royal arms of England, near which an open carriage 
 also waited, and passed into the Consul's office. She 
 expected sternness, but the Consul smiled agreeably, 
 and after shaking hands with her, took up his hat. 
 
 " I have been thinking," he observed, " that all I 
 have to say could be much better said by some one 
 else a woman. I should be hampered by embar- 
 rassment." He smiled. " So, if you don't mind, I 
 have sent a note to Mrs. Cameron, asking leave to 
 bring you out to tea with her this afternoon. I have 
 a carriage at the door."
 
 VEILED WOMEN 23 
 
 " I also have a carriage," she replied, with a light 
 laugh, as they went out together. She could not but 
 admire his strategy, for Mrs. Cameron, the leader of 
 the English colony, was a gentlewoman of the 
 straightest Christian outlook, the last person whom 
 a renegade would care to face. She had, moreover, 
 been all kindness to the stranded girl, hospitably 
 entertaining her until she found a situation. Since 
 going to Muhammad Pasha's house the governess had 
 spent a Sunday with her, and heard warnings. To 
 brave her now would be an ordeal, but no matter. 
 The destined bride of Yiisuf scorned all fear. 
 
 Out at the gate the Consul eyed her carriage with 
 intense disfavour, especially Sawwab the eunuch, who 
 stood ready at the door. 
 
 " You will kindly come in mine," he said per- 
 emptorily. 
 
 " Then you will kindly tell the Pasha's man to 
 follow," she replied, with eyes that twinkled laughter 
 at his show of temper. 
 
 He shouted to the Pasha's coachman, and got in 
 beside her. For a while they drove in silence, the 
 Consul stealing glances at her face from time to time. 
 She knew that he was struck by the new charm of 
 her. His manner had a dash of gallantry which 
 was amusing. 
 
 " I hate to see you in that carriage, with those 
 servants," he exclaimed at length impulsively. 
 " You must forgive me. I have lived here years, 
 and know the country."
 
 24 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Again she laughed and her eyes quizzed him. The 
 thought that she knew more than he did, possibly, 
 was made conviction by his next remark: 
 
 " Please realise that you are absolutely free. 
 Whatever may have happened I mean whatever 
 influences have been brought to bear those people 
 cannot hurt you now, or even reach you." This man 
 who knew the country suspected the good Pasha of 
 iniquity, and looked upon his palace as a den of vice. 
 She said: 
 
 " There has been nothing of the kind. I have 
 never been so kindly treated or so happy." 
 
 He hemmed and hawed, remarking: 
 
 " Well, remember what I say. And don't forget 
 that, as a British subject here, you have great priv- 
 ileges which, whatever happens, you will be unwise to 
 forfeit. I hope you will confide in Mrs. Cameron. 
 There is no one in this world more kind and trust- 
 worthy." 
 
 She answered, " Thanks ! " and turned from him 
 to contemplate the passing scene. Their carriage 
 flew along a sandy lane between walled gardens of 
 the suburbs, with here and there a mansion closely 
 shuttered towards the street. The road was covered 
 with the long procession of the fellahin returning 
 outward to their villages men straddled over 
 donkeys between empty paniers , women stalked erect 
 and queen-like in their graceful drapery; here and 
 there a camel sauntered, led by some bare-legged boy 
 the whole, obscured by clouds of dust, illumined
 
 VEILED WOMEN 25 
 
 warmly by the rays of the declining sun, or steeped 
 in the deep shadow of mud walls. Footfarers, forced 
 aside to let the carriage pass, stared at its inmates 
 with contemptuous eyes. The garb of Europe was 
 a blot upon the peaceful scene. Her heart went out 
 to all those people, plodding, contented, in the sunlit 
 dust. Henceforth she would be nothing strange to 
 them, she swore it. 
 
 " Here we are ! " The Consul's voice disturbed 
 her reverie. He shouted to the driver and the car- 
 riage stopped. The harim carriage drew up close 
 behind it. A door in a high wall was opened by a 
 smiling negro. A minute later she was in a cool 
 verandah, looking on a well-kept garden, outside a 
 very English drawing-room. 
 
 It was a house where all was tidy and precise, 
 a hostile element to one in love with the untrimmed 
 profusion of the Pasha's palace. She hated it as 
 servants hate a nagging mistress. 
 
 " Now, having brought you two together, I shall 
 leave you," said the Consul pleasantly. " This 
 young lady, Mrs. Cameron, has gone and got herself 
 into a precious fix. Confess her thoroughly, and 
 then we'll find some way to get her out of it." 
 
 " But I have no desire to get out of it," cried the 
 girl, exasperated. " The fix, as you are pleased to 
 call it, is my greatest happiness." 
 
 But the Consul was already gone, delighted as it 
 seemed to wash his hands of her. She found herself 
 alone with Mrs. Cameron.
 
 26 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " We'll have some tea at once, and you must see 
 the children," was that lady's first remark, so dif- 
 ferent from the attack anticipated that the guest, all 
 nerved for battle, felt defrauded. Though ready to 
 resist with fury, she lacked the energy required to 
 open fight. Tea came, and with it the three tow- 
 haired children, whose presence made all talk im- 
 possible. The girl sat moody, in abeyance, replying 
 briefly to remarks addressed to her. The garden 
 perfumes became stronger as the sun sank. They, 
 or some kindred but more subtle influence, obscured 
 her brain with fumes in which her purpose loomed 
 unreal and enormous. The homely scene appealed 
 to her against her will. Almost she had the sense of 
 hands held out to her, while Mrs. Cameron was talk- 
 ing nonsense with the children. This playing on her 
 nerves seemed a mean stratagem. Hot anger grew 
 beneath her careless shell. 
 
 At length the youngsters were dismissed. The 
 girl then braced herself to meet the blow. Again she 
 felt a keen pang of deception when her hostess 
 said: 
 
 " I am going to ask you a great favour. Stay 
 the night with me ! My husband is away at Alex- 
 andria. I am really lonely." 
 
 " Thank you very much, but it is really quite im- 
 possible," there was poison in the honey of this 
 sweet reply, " I have a carriage waiting." 
 
 " We can send it with a message." 
 
 " No, really, thank you ! I have stayed too long
 
 VEILED WOMEN 27 
 
 already." She suddenly bethought her of the master 
 move, and rose determined. 
 
 " No, sit down, my dear ! " cried Mrs. Cameron. 
 " I have to talk to you. And though I would rather 
 have had the night in which to think things over, I 
 must, since you force me to it, speak quite simply 
 now. I say: Don't do it, child! Don't take the 
 step the Consul tells me that you contemplate! He 
 thought that you had been seduced by unfair prac- 
 tices ; but that, I see from your behaviour, is not so. 
 It is just the charm of novelty, the spirit of adven- 
 ture is it not? with just, perhaps, a little mis- 
 chief prompting, a little grudge against the dull life 
 you have led. My love, you must not be allowed to 
 do it you, an Englishwoman ! It degrades us all. 
 I have lived out here for years, and I assure you that, 
 if a daughter of mine declared her will to marry one 
 of them, sooner than it should happen I would kill 
 her with my own hands. A girl ! It is unheard of ! 
 With their view of women ! " 
 
 " It is plain you know nothing about them," 
 sneered the other ; " at any rate, about the class of 
 people I have mixed with. They have the greatest 
 reverence for women. You suppose, because we 
 veil " 
 
 "We!" interjected Mrs. Cameron. 
 
 '* Yes, we ; for I am one of those whom you so 
 grossly slander." A drum of battle beat at either 
 temple of the girl thus brought to bay. Her brain 
 reeled with indignation, and her voice grew husky.
 
 28 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " I say, you think because we veil that we are quite 
 degraded, the same as we do when we see your faces 
 bare. The difference is one of custom only. Under- 
 neath our veils, in our own houses, we are just as 
 happy and as free as you are. ... It is too droll! 
 You fancy that Mahometan women have their lives 
 made miserable? Why, I have never known such 
 happy women. From my rooms, I hear them laugh- 
 ing, playing, singing all day long." 
 
 " Poor things ! They know no other life. You 
 do, and would be miserable in the same conditions. 
 Have you ever thought of what polygamy involves 
 for women, anyhow ? " 
 
 " It seems to me extremely sensible and kind to 
 women. It takes into consideration facts which we 
 slur over, cruelly. It gives to every girl a chance 
 of motherhood." 
 
 " My dear ! " exclaimed the mentor, greatly 
 shocked. 
 
 " I don't care what you think. It is quite true." 
 " You are young and inexperienced. We who 
 live in the country hear of things of which you can- 
 not possibly know anything things that I wish 
 most heartily that you may never know. That is 
 why I beg of you earnestly to change your mind." 
 " Nothing will make me do that." 
 " Then you are honestly in love, and we will say 
 no more on that point." The forbearance was so 
 unexpected that the governess was startled and 
 stared at Mrs. Cameron with unbelieying eyes. The
 
 VEILED WOMEN 29 
 
 elder lady showed such trembling earnestness that she 
 grieved for the necessity to shock and wound her. 
 " There remains another question, on an altogether 
 higher plane I mean the question of religion." 
 Mrs. Cameron's voice turned awestruck. " The 
 Consul tells me but oh, no ! It is too fearful ! " 
 
 " 1 don't see why ! " returned the other doggedly. 
 " They worship God as we do, and they count Christ 
 as a prophet. They are no more fearful than the 
 Unitarians in England. And I am sure they think 
 much more about religion in their daily lives than 
 people do at home." 
 
 " They deny the essence of Christianity the 
 Redemption. How can you turn your back upon 
 that marvel of Divine Love? Their ideals are all 
 much lower, more material. . . . My dear, I see 
 that you have come here primed with specious argu- 
 ments, and I regret that I am not clever enough to 
 make you see their falseness. I wish I had the 
 tongues of all the angels at this moment grieving over 
 you, to show you how terrific is the gulf you view so 
 lightly." 
 
 The girl laughed nervously. " I don't suppose 
 the angels bother much. You talk as if God only 
 cared for Christians. I'm sure He thinks the Mos- 
 lems just as valuable. If you are so much better, 
 why don't you mix with them and try to do them 
 good?" 
 
 " Some of us are doing so." 
 
 " In such a way ! . . ."
 
 30 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " We are not discussing missionary methods, dear. 
 Your case is the only one before us." 
 
 " Well, you say that missionaries mean to do good 
 in their way; but it never seems to strike you that I 
 may hope to do a little good in mine ! " 
 
 Her tone grew plaintive; the long contest wearied 
 her. The bloom of shadow on the garden, under- 
 neath the rose of sunset, the voices of the evening 
 made her wistful ; while the sadness which attends all 
 partings clutched her heart. The whine of doing 
 good had slipped from her at unawares an echo 
 from her former life of hired hypocrisy. It had been 
 the natural tone of conversation with a lady of the 
 class " employer." 
 
 " That rings untrue. You're simply talking for 
 effect ! " cried Mrs. Cameron, indignant. " It is un- 
 kind when I am speaking from my heart of 
 hearts. . . . Now, only one word more. If you ever 
 loved any one father, or mother, or friend at 
 home in England, think of that person and just ask 
 yourself what he or she would think of your denying 
 Christ. The act is so uncalled-for that it seems like 
 wanton wickedness. You can marry your Mahom- 
 etan without renouncing Christianity, and by so do- 
 ing you would have more honour in your husband's 
 eyes. You could retain your status as a British 
 subject, which means something here; and if you 
 really have a purpose to do good among those people, 
 you would be in a better position to do so than by 
 sinking to their level."
 
 VEILED WOMEN 31 
 
 " I won't hear a word more ! Oh, you are brutal ! " 
 The girl started up with hands and teeth clenched, 
 past endurance. " Oh, you are brutal to bully me 
 like this ! I tell you once for all, I love those people, 
 whom you and all your kind hate and tell lies about. 
 No one was ever really nice to me before. They are 
 a million times better than any Christians I have ever 
 known. I tell you I belong to them, and not to you ! 
 I mean to have the same religion as my husband, and 
 if he goes to Hell, well, I'll go too ! Do you under- 
 stand? " Her words now came in gusts, for she was 
 sobbing heavily. " You'll never see me any more, of 
 course, for I'm a wicked Moslem and you're so fa- 
 natical ! I don't care ; I can do without you. I have 
 truer friends, who really like me and don't only 
 patronise. Oh, how can. you make me cry like this, 
 when I was so so happy ! " 
 
 To her surprise, she found herself in her tor- 
 mentor's arms. 
 
 " You wrong me, dear. I'm not fanatical, nor 
 yet so narrow-minded as you think. Now, will you 
 promise that, whatever happens, you will look upon 
 me as a friend and come to see me sometimes? I 
 have said all I can to dissuade you, because I fear you 
 may repent of your decision when too late. My 
 hope is, now and always, that you may be happy. 
 You'll promise, won't you, still to make a friend of 
 me?" 
 
 The girl nodded, sobbing, speechless with emotion. 
 
 " Well, then, God bless you, dear, among the Mos-
 
 SS VEILED WOMEN 
 
 lems, and may you always bear the standard of true 
 Christian womanhood ! " 
 
 With that two-edged blessing in her ears, the 
 renegade, a bowed and shrinking figure, traversed the 
 garden in the blue of twilight. She felt guilty and 
 unnerved, irresolute, until she saw the Pasha's car- 
 riage waiting in the lane, when pride returned. The 
 tears yet wet upon her cheeks, she stood erect and 
 sniffed the evening air. There was still much traffic 
 on the sandy road, running between dark garden- 
 walls to where, beside a little dome, a single palm- 
 plume stood up black against the sky. The dust 
 kicked up by donkeys' hoofs, by people's footsteps, 
 rose greenish like wood-smoke. Some wayfarers al- 
 ready carried lighted lanterns which made coloured 
 circles in the gloaming like the peacock's eyes. A 
 life of passionate adventure lay before her, most 
 curious and rich and warm with human failings, 
 much better worth than that which she had left 
 behind. 
 
 Sawwab the eunuch held the carriage door for her, 
 and murmured " Praise to Allah ! " as he shut her in. 
 She saw him merely as a well-trained servant, having 
 as yet no inkling of his grim significance.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MUHAMMAD PASHA SALIH went again to see the Con- 
 sul, this time upon receiving a peremptory summons. 
 He came away with smart sensations of indignity, the 
 unbeliever having warned him to take care of his 
 behaviour to the English governess. The marriage 
 contract, he was told, must be in order, and every 
 detail of her treatment strictly honourable. These 
 admonitions thrown as to a dog, to him, the known 
 embodiment of goodness, made him cry. When he 
 got home it was to find a note from the Grand Cadi, 
 requesting him to call at once upon that dignitary, 
 who besought him, for the honour of the Faith, to be 
 precise in all his dealings with the English convert. 
 And when, that afternoon, he waited in his duty on 
 the lord of Egypt, that prince demanded tidings of 
 the Englishwoman and, jesting, told him to be sure 
 and use her kindly. 
 
 " She must be a rare pearl," the sovereign 
 chuckled. " The English Representative is mad- 
 dened by her loss. By God and His Apostle, I 
 have half a mind to snatch her from thee." 
 
 For one whose house had always been a guarded 
 sanctuary, who never made nor brooked the least 
 allusion to his women, such language from licentious 
 lips, in hearing of the throng of courtiers, was sheer 
 
 M
 
 34 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 ignominy. He cursed the parents and religion of 
 the English Consul, the cause of this indecent noising 
 of a private matter. The dog appeared to fancy 
 that he had to do with f ellahin or small officials ; for 
 he had spoken of the facility of divorce and the 
 danger of the Englishwoman being cast adrift. 
 Among the vulgar there were men who changed 
 wives constantly, even persecuting her they had till 
 she herself besought the Cadi for release, thus for- 
 feiting the dowry which was justly hers. Such men 
 might be, who thought it clever to defraud poor 
 maidens. But that any one could think that he, 
 Muhammad Pasha, or a child of his, could harbour 
 such iniquity seemed barely credible. The hot tears 
 stung his eyeballs at the thought of it. 
 
 " Just Allah ! " he exclaimed within himself. 
 " Does he suppose that we have no morality? 
 Would he, whose native customs are as shameless 
 as the ways of beasts, leaving females unprotected 
 and at large, instruct us how to cherish and to guard 
 a woman? He talks as if I were some pimp or 
 ruffian, when I am dealing with the maid as faith- 
 fully as if she were my only child ! " 
 
 In truth, before this trouble with the Consul, at 
 the ceremony of betrothal, when he himself had 
 prompted the bride's proxy, he had assigned to her 
 a dowry of three thousand pounds a sum sufficient 
 to make Yusuf hesitate, however angry, before he 
 gave the order for divorce. He had, moreover, 
 spoken to his son most gravely, pointing out the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 35 
 
 friendless state of the young woman, and informing 
 him that if he took her it must be for life. Yusuf 
 had made frantic answer in the way of lovers, com- 
 paring his fidelity to stars and blossoms. The Pasha 
 bound him by a solemn oath always to show for- 
 bearance to his foreign wife. He then drove him 
 forth to spend the time until the wedding in a 
 cousin's house; where, as he had heard this after- 
 noon from the said cousin, Yusuf kept raving of his 
 love in abstract terms, for decency till the whole 
 selamlik was infected with the trick of sighing. 
 Nothing could have been more honourable than his 
 conduct. The girl was better off than ever in her 
 life before, and knew it. He swore an oath to let the 
 Consul know it too. 
 
 Accordingly, returning to his house that evening, 
 he craved immediate audience of the sometime gover- 
 ness ; and shortly entered her apartments, which, pro- 
 viding simply for an upper servant of his house, he 
 had furnished in the Frankish manner to seem home- 
 like. If he had gone to so much trouble for a 
 stranger's comfort, was it likely he would prove a 
 niggard towards his dear son's bride? The pig who 
 thus traduced him must be taught. 
 
 The girl was sitting in a chair beside the window, 
 reading an English book. It pleased him to re- 
 flect that she was highly educated. In these bad 
 times, when Frankish lore was in demand, her in- 
 structions might secure advancement to a man like 
 Yusuf, who knew French already.
 
 36 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 She laid aside her book and rose to meet him with 
 a charming blush. He took her hand and raised it 
 to his lips ; then sank down on a chair and clasped 
 his brow. 
 
 " Ah, mademoiselle ! " he moaned, " I am so 
 troubled. God knows my heart is sad, profoundly 
 wounded. You are kind and generous, and you 
 know our hearts. But those others of your nation 
 . . . Pouf! How bitter! How fanatical! They 
 treat me and rny house as dirt. Here is the case: 
 You honour my poor house; you are alone; you 
 have no parents. I say to myself, * She is an orphan ; 
 I will be her father.' I therefore do what parents 
 do according to our customs. I provide the trous- 
 seau; I also bargain with the bridegroom's people to 
 enddw you richly. 
 
 " Let me explain what that means, since it must 
 be quite unknown to you. With us, divorce is easy; 
 it suffices for the man to say a little formula; but 
 the husband must support the wife for three months 
 afterwards, and he must pay the balance of the dowry 
 stated in the marriage contract, or, if no portion has 
 been paid beforehand, then J;he whole of it. That 
 makes him think. And the greater the dowry, the 
 longer will he meditate before divorcing her. Now 
 I, your father, have talked the matter over with my- 
 self, the bridegroom's father, and have obtained for 
 you a dowry of three thousand pounds Egyptian. 
 This sum will be stated in the contract, signed and 
 sealed before the judge, and my son will have to pay
 
 VEILED WOMEN 37 
 
 it if ever he desires divorce, which God forbid! 
 Your trousseau, with the jewels and the slaves that I 
 am going to give you, the furniture of these rooms 
 and more which I shall buy to supplement it I 
 wish your house to be the kind you are accustomed to 
 all this, I say, will be your absolute property, and 
 so stipulated in the contract." 
 
 The girl had seized his hand. She pressed it to 
 her lips and sighed: 
 
 " How good you are ! " 
 
 His own emotion was no less than hers. The 
 humiliations of that day had taxed his fortitude, 
 and the sense of his integrity beneath aspersion was 
 like a bubbling fount of tears in outer darkness. 
 The warm touch of her gratitude unmanned him 
 quite. He sobbed aloud: 
 
 " Ah, mademoiselle ! God knows that I have done 
 my best! Yet here is the Consul threatening me, 
 and moving all the Government to watch me closely; 
 as if I had entrapped you for some evil purpose ! 
 as if I were the worst of criminals, intent to harm you ! 
 ... I cannot vindicate myself. It would be too de- 
 grading. And if he thinks me such a first-class 
 canaille he would not believe me. Therefore I come 
 to beg you, mademoiselle, yourself to deign to write 
 a h'ttle word to this good monsieur, assuring him 
 that we are not the monsters he supposes." 
 
 The girl's face flamed. " I write at once ! " she 
 said, and rose to do so. 
 
 But the Pasha cried : " One moment, made-
 
 38 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 moiselle ! " He wiped his eyes and struggled to re- 
 cover firmness. " Do not suppose that I complain ! 
 Even if the happiness of my dear son were not con- 
 cerned, I would suffer more than this much more 
 abominations ! to serve so beautiful and good a 
 lady. I fear my words have saddened you. Oh, 
 God forbid! Never, I pray you, think of it again, 
 your letter written. You must be all happy. To- 
 morrow you must go among our ladies. You will 
 find there mothers, sisters, longing to embrace you. 
 They will help you choose the stuffs for your trous- 
 seau. They speak Arabic, of which you know few 
 words as yet, or Turkish, which is quite unknown to 
 you. But my widowed sister speaks a little French, 
 and Murjanah Khanum owns a young Circassian 
 who can talk it fluently. She is a present from re- 
 lations in Constantinople who have bred her from a 
 child in every elegance. At the time of the great war 
 with Russia, French was much the mode; even girls 
 learnt it, and this maid of whom I speak, Gulbeyzah, 
 talks it well. She shall be attached to you as in- 
 terpreter. The wedding, if it please you, can take 
 place next week. We will have it in the mode of 
 Europe nothing barbarous ! " 
 
 " I love your customs ! " she replied. " Let it be 
 just as if I were a native bride." 
 
 " No, no," remarked the Pasha, with a chuckle. 
 " There are many usual ceremonies here in Egypt 
 which are condemned by our religion, strictly speak- 
 ing. These we shall exclude, preserving only one or
 
 VEILED WOMEN 39 
 
 two which may amuse you. My son also will modify 
 his life to suit your foreign standards; it is only just; 
 although the life of our own ladies is by no means 
 terrible, as you will find. To-morrow you shall spend 
 in the haramlik. You will find there many friends. 
 All, all will love you and make glad your heart. 
 And now, with your permission, mademoiselle, I shall 
 retire. Forget not that small letter to the Consul." 
 
 Muhammad Pasha, coming from that interview, 
 was traversing the hall of the selamlik towards his 
 study, when a sudden clamour at the house-door 
 startled him. 
 
 "Curse thy father! Wait, I say! Be still a 
 minute ! " cried the doorkeeper ; while another voice 
 yelled madly, " I must see the Pasha. Where is he ? 
 Let me pass, I say ! The need is urgent ! " 
 
 " Cut short thy life ! Wait only ! Are these man- 
 ners? He has entered the harim, I tell thee! " 
 
 There followed sounds as of a struggle, and before 
 the Pasha could divine the meaning of the uproar, a 
 youth in poor attire rushed in and fell before him, 
 panting : 
 
 " He told me to win to thee, O my lord to fight 
 my way through armed hosts if necessary, to seek 
 thee even in the secrecy of the harim, saying that the 
 letter which I bear would be my full excuse." 
 
 It was a poor familiar of the palace, named 
 Ghandur, one who from early childhood had been 
 Yusuf's humble shadow, a youth so simply honest 
 in his judgments that to subtler wits they wore the
 
 40 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 look of imbecility. But yesterday he had been here 
 as usual, sitting in the entrance on the watch for 
 Yfisuf. To-day he had been absent, but without dis- 
 loyalty: he had been sitting in the entrance of the 
 house where Yusuf sojourned temporarily. 
 
 " He bade me run, and Allah witness I have done 
 his bidding. I am thy slave, give pardon, O my 
 lord the Pasha ! " 
 
 " Salvation be upon thee, O Ghandur. What let- 
 ter, now, is this of which thou speakest? Give! " 
 
 Reassured by the kind tone, Ghandur arose, and 
 smiling with a flash of perfect teeth, produced a let- 
 ter from his bosom, touched his forehead with it, then 
 reverently laid it in the Pasha's outstretched hand. 
 It ran: 
 
 " My garden of delight is in thy custody. The 
 palpitations of my heart inform me danger shadows 
 it. Alas! the grievous power of jealousy, which can 
 make of a gazelle a tigress, and turn a mother's love 
 into a sword. This is the third time I have written 
 to thee, yet no answer. Say that thou hast taken 
 measures to preserve my lovely blossom from envious 
 trampling and from poisoned water. . . ." 
 
 The Pasha crumpled up the letter and stood 
 wrapped in thought. Coming so close upon his 
 promise to the English girl that all the women in 
 the house would love and cherish her, the warning 
 had a flavour of fatality. He recalled the lady Fit-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 41 
 
 nah's frowardness. She had been punished. Who 
 could say that she had changed her mind? And, 
 with the Consul's evil eye upon the house, the shame 
 of any outbreak would be doubled. 
 
 " .Run to my son ! " he told Ghandur. " Assure 
 him that a guard is kept, none safer, under Allah. 
 Bid his soul have rest." 
 
 Having watched the youth depart, he called the 
 eunuchs and ordered them to guard the English lady 
 as their life. Then he proceeded to the kitchens and 
 there gave command that every dish and drink pre- 
 pared for the table of the governess should come first 
 to him that he might taste and judge its quality. 
 And he took good care to let the women know of this 
 precaution.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE women's quarters were a rambling place, with 
 three small courtyards all on different levels, tunnels, 
 staircases inside and out, and passages which ran 
 in all directions. Besides the ladies Fitnah and 
 Murjanah and their households, a widowed sister of 
 the Pasha, and a former slave who had enjoyed his 
 favour, kept separate state, with children and at- 
 tendants. Freed slaves and poor relations, recog- 
 nised go-betweens and sycophants came in and out, 
 and slept there when they chose a privilege extend- 
 ing to their offspring. Old women with a secret, 
 knowing look edged through the corridors; untidy 
 children sprawled upon the stairs ; outside the door 
 of each of the great ladies stood rows of coloured 
 slippers, signifying humble callers. The place 
 seemed always populous and full of noise. In a 
 sense, good order reigned there ; but it was the order 
 of a township rather than a private residence, in- 
 cluding all degrees of cleanliness, of wealth and 
 squalor. The corps of eunuchs, ten in all, were the 
 police. 
 
 This little world of women had its liberties. 
 From the third hour of the day until the sunset call 
 to prayer, the lord of the harim was absent. If he 
 
 42
 
 VEILED WOMEN 4S 
 
 happened to return, it was his duty to announce the 
 fact beforehand, allowing time for visitors to veil and 
 slip away. The inmates had their private interests, 
 their games and jokes. The clash of tambourines, 
 the quick soft beat of darabukkahs made a pulse of 
 glee. They all seemed happy and in love with life, 
 although they hardly ever saw the sun or breathed 
 free air; for when they drove abroad it was in shut- 
 tered carriages; and the family mausoleum, where 
 they went for picnics, was a second palace with its 
 own haramlik. 
 
 But what surprised the Englishwoman more than 
 anything was the charm of majesty the exquisite 
 prestige which certain of these Eastern women 
 radiated; making her feel small. They called her 
 " Barakah " ; it was her name thenceforward, and 
 meant a Godsend, so the courtly Pasha told her. 
 That name increased her awkwardness at first, sound- 
 ing sarcastic from the lips of queenly women. 
 
 On the morning after she had written her indig- 
 nant letter to the Consul, she was awakened by soft 
 singing. A beautiful and stately girl sat by her bed, 
 who, seeing her at last awake, sprang up and kissed 
 her. Murjanah Khanum, claiming Yusuf's bride as 
 her own guest until the wedding, had sent her slave 
 Gulbeyzah to attend her to the bath, attire her in a 
 robe of honour (which was shown), and then escort 
 her to Murjanah Khanum's rooms, where Barakah 
 was asked to breakfast and to spend the day. It 
 was useless to resist. Gulbeyzah knew her duties,
 
 44 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 and performed them scrupulously. By the time they 
 left the bathhouse, Barakah arrayed in gorgeous 
 silk, her fingers hennaed and her eyes enlarged with 
 kohl, they were laughing friends. 
 
 Murjanah. Khanum took the Englishwoman in her 
 arms and kissed her; then sitting down beside her, 
 subjected her to a prolonged inspection, none the less 
 embarrassing for being tender. 
 
 " Ma sh'Allah ! " she exclaimed, and added some 
 soft words in Turkish, looking to Gulbeyzah, who 
 translated : 
 
 " Madame says you are more beautiful than she 
 was told. Your beauty is more excellent than the 
 rose. Your eyes remind her of the Bosphorus. You 
 make her think of her own country. The desire 
 which you inspire is like home-sickness." 
 
 Barakah could only blush and hang her head 
 a posture which drew down fresh compliments upon 
 her modesty. 
 
 Slaves brought in trays of fruit and set them down, 
 retiring silently. Then an old negress came in with 
 a brazier and made coffee, with which was served a 
 kind of fritter smeared with honey. Then a young 
 girl appeared with ewer and basin and fine towels, 
 going first to Barakah, who rinsed her hands. Mur- 
 janah and Gulbeyzah, she saw afterwards, used soap 
 and washed their teeth as well a cause of splutter- 
 ing. 
 
 Murjanah Khanum rolled a cigarette. She 
 lounged at ease with eyes intent on Barakah, and
 
 VEILED WOMEN 45 
 
 while she smoked, gave vent to her reflections, which 
 Gulbeyzah rendered into French as best she could. 
 
 " It is a great distress to me not to be able to 
 convey my loving thoughts directly to the mind of 
 one so near. Ask the dear one if she speaks Romaic, 
 or a little Persian. No? A pity! She is learning 
 Arabic? In sh' Allah, she will soon acquire that 
 tongue and Turkish too. . . . 
 
 " I fear she must feel strange and lonely in a life 
 so different: I wish I could expound its beauty to 
 her. Ask her whether she has read the tragedies 
 of Sophocles, an ancient Greek. No? That sur- 
 prises. I had thought them known among the 
 Franks. Say, I have read them in the Turkish ver- 
 sion and admired them greatly. . . . At least, she 
 knows that, in old times, before the prophets, there 
 were priestesses who guarded mysteries of the false 
 gods? . . . Well, we secluded women of the East 
 are the guardians of the mysteries of God Most High 
 the verities of life and death, of birth and growth 
 and of decay of all those things which come di- 
 rectly from the hand of God. These are the sense 
 of life; though much obscured by all the surface 
 agitation which disturbs the life of men. We, in our 
 calm retirement, always view them. . . . 
 
 " And then, when one regards the strife of tribes, 
 the tumults and rebellion in this world, is it not well 
 that womanhood should be kept sacred and aloof, 
 respected in the strife of Muslims the ark which 
 bears the future of the Faith? . . . Then, even as
 
 46 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 it is, much crime is caused by love and jealousy. 
 What would it be if women went unveiled? I say 
 not in her land where men's blood may be more 
 equable; but here. . . . Just Allah! Youth would 
 be a curse. If marriageable girls were barefaced, 
 what could preserve them from atrocious accidents? 
 We guard their youth and train them to be lovers, 
 child-bearers; we send forth healthy boys to serve 
 the Faith. . . . 
 
 " Tell her that I myself, by Allah's visitation, have 
 lost all my children ; yet, thanks to El Islam, I am 
 not desolate. I have her Yusuf and a score of others 
 for delight." 
 
 Hearing these words translated by Gulbeyzah, 
 Barakah felt abashed to insignificance. The habit 
 of confronting the brute facts of life, which Europe- 
 ans cover over, clothed this old woman in a tragic 
 grandeur which was almost terrifying. She was re- 
 lieved when other ladies came and talk grew shallow. 
 Silks and fine linen fabrics were spread out before 
 her. Hearing that she was required to choose among 
 them for her trousseau, she emplored Gulbeyzah with 
 despairing gestures to say that she resigned selection 
 to the ladies. The answer caused relief. The ladies 
 set to work methodically, feeling, stroking, compar- 
 ing the materials in the best light, discoursing all 
 the while like happy birds. Fitnah Khanum was 
 less forward than the others in politeness, and kept 
 her face averted from the gaze of Barakah. She 
 took her leave before the service of the midday meal.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 47 
 
 The Pasha's widowed sister begged of Barakah to 
 spend the following day with her in her apartments. 
 Murjanah was approached and gave consent. 
 
 " I can give you dinner on a proper table with 
 chairs and knives and forks," the widow said in broken 
 French. 
 
 Murjanah Khanum's tables were brass trays on 
 little stands, and everybody ate with fingers from 
 the dish. 
 
 The day with Leylah Khanum was less serious. 
 The widow's talk was all of love and lovers. A per- 
 fect host of go-betweens was kept employed to find 
 her a fresh husband; but, though ageing fast, she 
 was fastidious and asked perfection. 
 
 " God grant she may not die a widow," sighed 
 Gulbeyzah, who explained the case to Barakah. 
 
 Leylah Khanum was much exercised to know 
 whether Barakah had had much love-experience in 
 England. Hearing " No," she raised her hands in 
 marvel. One so beautiful! The mistress of so much 
 charm! And unveiled among men! She asked the 
 reason. 
 
 " I was poor," said Barakah. 
 
 At that there was a loud outcry; Leylah Khanum 
 and Gulbeyzah called on God for pity. 
 
 " But you are beautiful ! Men pay for beauty, 
 need no bribe with it. And you mean to say they 
 would have let you die a virgin with that loveli- 
 ness? O Lord of Heaven! What a wicked waste! " 
 
 Their dread of dying in virginity appealed to
 
 48 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Barakah as something comical when she remembered 
 the ideals preached in Christendom. 
 
 Leylah Khanum told her stories of true love, all far 
 from proper judged by English taste; and shocked 
 her by the cool assertion that poison was a woman's 
 natural weapon. In the afternoon they were invited 
 to Murjanah Khan urn's rooms, where the business 
 of the trousseau still proceeded. It went on for days. 
 Each morning when she woke, the bride-elect found 
 some fresh present from the Pasha in her room, which 
 Gulbeyzah made her carry forth and show to every 
 one. The whole haramlik frolicked round her in 
 excitement. 
 
 Gulbeyzah's status in the household puzzled her. 
 The Circassian seemed the equal of the ladies, yet 
 was called a slave. 
 
 She said to her one day : 
 
 " You are as white as I am. How can you bear 
 to be a slave like Wardah or Fatumah? " 
 
 " Not like Wardah or Fatumah, if you please ! " 
 was the superb rejoinder. " They or their fathers 
 were captured in a warlike raid and made to Islam, 
 I, God be praised, was born in the Faith. Look ! " 
 she cried, and with a splendid gesture bared her 
 bosom. " This is the paste of which they make 
 sultanas. My parents sold me they were poor 
 that I might come to honour, as others of the family 
 have done before me." 
 
 " But what chance have you here ? Do you ex- 
 pect to captivate the Pasha ? "
 
 VEILED WOMEN 49 
 
 " God forbid ! I never even see him. Here I 
 serve the sweetest of all ladies, who will one day 
 find me a rich husband. It is a famed harim, and 
 my lady is renowned for goodness and refinement. 
 The greatest in the land would not disdain a fair 
 Circassian girl of her instructing." 
 
 " But do you never miss your freedom ? You can 
 form no projects, being, it seems, entirely in the 
 hands of others. Surely your thoughts are not so 
 ruly? You must sometimes dream?" 
 
 Gulbeyzah fixed her great eyes on the questioner 
 as though debating whether she were to be trusted. 
 Then, with a smile, she grasped her hand and 
 whispered, " Come ! " 
 
 She led the English girl across the court where 
 grew the orange trees, down a foul-smelling passage 
 towards the kitchens, and up a flight of stairs into 
 a corridor which served the chambers of the humblest 
 servants. In its wall was a recess with a small win- 
 dow neither barred nor latticed. Here Gulbeyzah 
 stopped. 
 
 The reason why that window had been left un- 
 caged wag plain, since it looked out upon blind walls 
 and distant housetops. But one small angle of a 
 terraced roof appeared within clear seeing range, and 
 on that angle sat a man. When Gulbeyzah leaned 
 her elbows on the window-sill, he sprang to his feet 
 ad made despairing gestures. She watched his 
 antics for a moment, then drew in her head. 
 
 " It is a secret, mind ! " she cautittoteO Barakah.
 
 50 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " I spent an afternoon here once, when I was sulky, 
 and he was walking on that roof by chance. Ever 
 since then I see him every day. He always sits 
 there. I sign to him to climb up, but I know he can- 
 not." She laughed scornfully. " I make romances 
 in my mind about him. It is evident he dies of love. 
 He has grown thinner." 
 
 " How cruel! How can you torment him so? " 
 
 " He is a man, you understand. One does not feel 
 compassion as one would for girls. Perhaps if he 
 could climb up here I should reward him, but, thanks 
 to God, he cannot, poor young man ! " 
 
 " But are you not ashamed to think such thoughts 
 you, the pupil of Murjanah Khanum? So im- 
 moral ! " 
 
 " It is my fancy, there ! Morality is not our busi- 
 ness. We are strictly guarded. One gets a con- 
 science what you call a soul when one 
 has children. How droll you are ! You talk j ust 
 like a man. God knows I love you, and should like to 
 be your durrah." (The word means colleague in the 
 married state.) 
 
 Gulbeyzah flung her arms round Barakah. A 
 sound of footsteps in the passage made them turn 
 and peep. 
 
 " It is a eunuch ! " the Circassian whispered. " He 
 has been there all the time. He attends you like 
 your shadow, have you noticed? How sweet to be so 
 precious; and so respected, for he keeps his dis- 
 tance ! "
 
 VEILED WOMEN 51 
 
 Barakah preferred these confidences with Gul- 
 beyzah to the endless fuss and noise about the trous- 
 seau. The hive was in commotion over the ap- 
 proaching marriage ; angry, Gulbeyzah told her, with 
 the Pasha for his wish to shear the festival of ancient 
 ceremonies regarded as the woman's right. When 
 approached upon this subject in a crowded conclave, 
 she said that she was anxious to conform to all their 
 customs an answer which was hailed with cries of 
 triumph. 
 
 Mrs. Cameron appeared one afternoon, the Con- 
 sul's envoy, to ascertain that all was well with the 
 perverted girl. She was shown to the state room, and 
 there regaled with tea in glasses and sweet biscuits, 
 in what was thought to be the English manner. The 
 ladies pestered her with eager questions, persisting, 
 despite frank denials, in regarding her as a near and 
 dear relation of the bride. She glanced reproachfully 
 at Barakah from time to time. " You're quite at 
 home with them, I see," she said at parting. " It 
 sounds unkind, but I must say I wish you weren't. 
 It is a fall for any woman bred as you were. How 
 can you put that kohl round your eyes? . . . Good- 
 bye, my dear, and don't forget our compact." 
 
 The visit leaving an unpleasant, sad impression, 
 Barakah withdrew to her own room, alleging head- 
 ache. She was lying on her bed with eyes half closed, 
 endeavouring to lay the ghost of former days, when 
 some one entered without knocking, shut the door 
 with care, and crept towards her. It was a strange
 
 52 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 old woman. She sidled up with much grimacing; 
 whispered " Yusuf ," laid her shrivelled cheek upon 
 her hand ; " Yusuf," again, and smacked her lips 
 delectably ; " Yusuf Bey, thy bridegroom," and made 
 the motion of grimacing with ecstatic grins. 
 
 Barakah grew interested. She longed to see the 
 man she was to marry and, fresh from Mrs. Cam- 
 eron's reproach, was feeling reckless. She tried to 
 question the old woman, but without result. The 
 crone kept nodding, " Yusuf Bey " and " Come." 
 She had brought with her a habbarah and mouth-veil, 
 which Barakah put on by her direction. Then they 
 stole forth, the temptress, in high glee. 
 
 But they had not made ten steps in the hall before 
 two eunuchs pounced on them and stared into their 
 eyes. One beat the hag, whose screams were fright- 
 ful. The other, smiling, dragged back Barakah, 
 pushed her irside her room and locked the door. 
 
 The meaning of the whole adventure remained 
 dark to her. Gulbeyzah, when informed of it, de- 
 clared that the old woman could not have been em- 
 ployed by Yusuf, who was much too honourable and 
 obedient to his father to indulge in such low games. 
 She ascribed the incident to machinations of the lady 
 Fitnah, beheld a plot to lure the English girl to some 
 lone place, there to be ravished if not slain. Bar- 
 akah laughed at such wild fancies. That Yusuf's 
 mother did not like her much was plain to see; she 
 had doubtless cherished other projects for her first-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 55 
 
 born ; but to impute the thought of crime to her was 
 too absurd. 
 
 " I bring good news," Gulbeyzah said to change 
 the subject. " The Pasha has granted us the visit 
 to the bath with you. He has engaged the best 
 musicians and some famous dancers, and all the 
 maidens of good houses are to be invited. Oh, what 
 joy!"
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE party at the bath with all its ritual was one of 
 the ordeals which Muhammad Pasha had wished to 
 spare the English girl. As a man he hated all the 
 pranks that women play alone, and deemed them of 
 necessity immodest. But the feeling roused in the 
 harim was too intense for him ; and as Barakah, he 
 was told, herself desired the entertainment, he could 
 adduce no cogent reason for refusal. The place in 
 the haramlik being ill adapted to a large assembly, 
 he hired the finest of the public baths for the occasion. 
 The dependants of the household clamouring for a 
 procession through the streets, he gave them one, 
 putting in place of Barakah a humbler bride whose 
 nuptials would be celebrated at his cost. 
 
 About the first hour after noon, the bride of Yusuf 
 left the house, sped by the ululations of the whole 
 harim. In a carriage with the Pasha's nieces and 
 Gulbeyzah, she was driven through the streets to the 
 Hammam. There, at the entrance, stood two eu- 
 nuchs, and in the ante-chamber many women-servants 
 of the Pasha's house. The ladies on arrival were 
 conducted to a second ante-room and there divested 
 of all clothing. Each put on a pair of clogs and had 
 her hair tied up in an embroidered kerchief. While 
 
 54
 
 VEILED WOMEN fi 
 
 they were disrobing, other veiled ones entered who 
 laughed heartily at Barakah's confusion. The pro- 
 cession of the humbler bride had arrived some minutes 
 since, they were informed. 
 
 The elder of the Pasha's nieces and Gulbeyzah took 
 each a hand of Barakah and led her on from room 
 to room, pausing in each to get accustomed to the 
 growing warmth. Suddenly they came upon a noisy 
 crowd. Two shiny negresses sprang forth and sin- 
 gling out the bride, lifted her up and bore her to a 
 corner of the hall beneath a tap. They flung her on 
 her back. Seeing a razor flash, she uttered shriek 
 on shriek the while they fell to rubbing, making her 
 joints crack kneading her very bones with their hard 
 fingers. With eyes half blind with soapsuds, she 
 beheld a wreath of naked figures moving round her in 
 a kind of dance. The wall and vaulted ceiling of 
 the building sweated. The windows were high up 
 and gave no light; there entered not a whiff of outer 
 air. A pulse beat at her temples. She felt suffo- 
 cated. 
 
 At last the women stopped their rubbing, and by 
 playful slaps informed her that her turn was ended. 
 Like a sheep from the shearing she rose up, stagger- 
 ing intent to flee. But she was caught again and 
 made to sit down while her hair was plaited. Then 
 some one it was Gulbeyzah grasped her hand 
 and led her to the outer end of the great hall, where 
 were two tanks of water gently steaming. The hall 
 presented a strange spectacle, for it was full of naked
 
 56 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 figures, ebon and mouse-brown, amber and snow- 
 white. Singers, all naked, sat beside one wall, and 
 hummed and droned and shrilled distractingly. 
 
 At a call, " The bride ! " the whole crowd rushed 
 on Barakah with ululations. Her shame became 
 acute, an agony. Gulbeyzah led her up to one of the 
 tanks. Some one behind administered a push, and 
 she fell in ; when some one else sprawled in upon the 
 top of her. Her head was under water for some 
 seconds. Spluttering, indignant, her throat choked 
 with sobs, she found herself among a group of laugh- 
 ing girls, all colours, who were ducking one another 
 as they splashed about. Gulbeyzah cried, " The 
 butterflies ! Look ! Look ! " and pointed to the 
 smooth stone marge, where all the ripples in the light 
 of smoky cressets were reflected like a thousand 
 fluttering moths. The stir subsiding when all stopped 
 to look, the moths united into one great butterfly, 
 dimly perceived, whose wings beat faint and fainter 
 as the water stilled. 
 
 " She has eaten them all ! Behold, how fat she 
 is ! " cried out Gulbeyzah. " I believe she is just 
 going to have some others. Look 1 " She plunged, 
 and made fresh ripples. Laughter hailed this sally. 
 A brown girl, lissom as a snake, sprang hard on the 
 facetious one and promptly ducked her. 
 
 Angry, humiliated, feeling lost eternally, Barakah 
 scrambled out to face a row of grinning, dancing 
 hags. They and the shameless girls, the fiendish 
 music, the sweating walls, the fumes of incense hiding
 
 VEILED WOMEN 57 
 
 the high roof, combined to make her fancy she was 
 underneath the earth assisting at an orgy of malig- 
 nant jinn. 
 
 Some one smote her from behind. She turned 
 round angrily. A fair-haired girl was running. 
 She ran after her. Another struck her lightly as she 
 ran. She turned again. A third sprang on her, 
 pinioned both her arms and kissed her on the mouth, 
 amid applause. Then first she realised that it was all 
 a game; the girls were friendly. In the magnitude 
 of her relief, her shyness vanished. She soon led the 
 romp. It was one long dancing game of follow-my- 
 leader, varied with moods of hide-and-seek and leap- 
 frog. All the while the musicians kept up their wild 
 din, the hired dancers never ceased their weird con- 
 tortions. 
 
 Afterwards, when they were all rubbed down and 
 clothed again, there was a feast of most delicious 
 dainties in the ante-rooms, and Barakah was intro- 
 duced to her late playfellows, transformed as if by 
 magic to polite young ladies. Every one of them, she 
 found, had brought a present for her. She chattered 
 merrily in French, and ate and drank with appetite 
 unknown before. Driving home in the carriage with 
 three delicately perfumed maidens, whose soft hands 
 caressed her, she experienced a blissful languor, like 
 thanksgiving.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MEANWHILE the anguish of the lady Fitnah had be- 
 come unbearable. The beating she had received, 
 which kept her silent, was only part of the injustice 
 which prevailed against her. She alone, she had as- 
 surance, was vouchsafed clear vision of the horror 
 of this marriage; all the rest were drugged and 
 blinded by the creature's spells. She had heard of 
 Franldsh women, who were barren, holding men en- 
 tranced for life, thus ending families ; and had no 
 doubt at all but this was one of them. A woman of 
 volcanic passions, always righteous, for her to look 
 on evil was to seek to slay it. 
 
 She said, " The fiend will suck my Yusuf's life out 
 and then vanish." 
 
 Her group of flatterers replied: 
 
 " Alas, yes ! She will suck him as one sucks an 
 orange, and go her way refreshed," giving the sad 
 mother a distracting picture of her first-born as an 
 empty orange-skin flung in the gutter among other 
 refuse. 
 
 She cried, " By Allah ! she shall die ! " 
 
 The sycophants replied, " Yes, by thy blessed 
 womb, she shall an awful death," and began to 
 meditate the form that death should take. 
 
 68
 
 VEILED WOMEN 59 
 
 " But she has islamed," one objected. 
 
 " Who knows if she has really islamed ? " was the 
 answer. " Our lord the Pasha is bewitched. He has 
 forgone in her case every ordeal that might test her 
 faith. It is ascertained that she is barren and will 
 drink the bridegroom's life. Woe ! Woe ! The end 
 of a most noble race ! " 
 
 Inspired by hatred of iniquity, fanned and en- 
 couraged by her little court, the anguished mother 
 had made sure arrangements for the English girl's 
 dishonour, thinking no crime to vilify so bad a thing. 
 The scheme, alas ! had been frustrated by the eu- 
 nuchs ; whose vigilance redoubled the poor lady's 
 grief. What dreadful magic must reside in that foul 
 creature to make the Pasha guard her like a pearl? 
 to make poor Yiisuf cling to her and shun his mother ? 
 Her cronies recommended her to summon negresses, 
 of those who have familiar intercourse with demons, 
 and hold the mystic ceremony called a zar the 
 latest novelty. But Fitnah Khanum feared the 
 Pasha, who denounced such consolations as against 
 religion. She was in despair. The hours flew by 
 towards the wedding; and she, perceiving all its hor- 
 ror, had no power to stop it. 
 
 On the very morning of the day appointed for the 
 final ceremonies, she received two visitors, not in her 
 own room, but in a dirty closet used for rubbish. 
 The first to enter was the same old woman who had 
 lured Barakah from her chamber with the name of 
 Yusuf. The second, throwing off the veil, revealed
 
 60 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 a goatish face with pointed ears beneath a foul white 
 skull-cap. It was Abu Sumum, the most renowned 
 of sorcerers. 
 
 He spread out his hands and chanted : 
 
 " In the name of Allah, Er Rahman, Er Rahhn, 
 Who taught the words of might to Suleyman el Hakim, 
 And gave the seal of power into his hand, 
 Lo, here I stand, 
 
 Abu Sumum, your humble servant to command! 
 Would you love-potions, I can give you those 
 Will bring the loved one to your feet though walls oppose 
 And all the doors be guarded by his foes. 
 Or have you enemies, but name their names 
 And I will torture them with hellish flames. 
 Wouldst thou their death? I'll write a potent spell 
 Upon an ass's thighbone, hide it well 
 Beneath the threshold where they dwell. 
 Wouldst thou their madness? I will tie their mind 
 To some low creature of a restless kind, 
 A bird or fish, that when it moves they rage, 
 And when it rests their fury they assuage; 
 And none shall know the secret saving I, 
 So that for lack of remedy they die. 
 Abu Sumum the wily one I am, 
 State but your need of me and so Salam ! " 
 
 Having concluded this doggerel, setting forth his 
 stock-in-trade, the wizard stood with arms crossed, 
 grinning widely. 
 
 " I have an enemy," faltered the lady, " and she 
 is dreadful, being a ginniyeh, and no child of Adam." 
 
 " Think not to instruct me," said the warlock. 
 " Nothing uncanny comes to Masr, but my hosts of 
 servants who are in the air inform me instantly.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 61 
 
 Ah, if it is the Englishwoman thou opposest, have 
 a care, for she is full of art, having attained the secret 
 of invisibility, of self-protection, and also of trans- 
 forming people into dogs. Now, what, I ask, dost 
 thou require of me exactly a potion that shall 
 make her love thee, or her madness, or a wasting ill- 
 ness ? " 
 
 " Nothing, nothing, save her instant death," sobbed 
 Fitnah " the wedding is to-day and then take 
 all my wealth." 
 
 " By thy leave, lady," cried the wizard, much 
 offended, " I am not him thou seekest ! Send for an 
 assassin 1 My business is with art and not brutal- 
 ity. Find out some chopper-up of wood: I am a 
 carver ! " 
 
 " But I know of no assassin ! How can we women 
 find and bring one hither? O Abu Sumum, be gen- 
 erous, for Allah's love ! " 
 
 " Hear the excellent lady, the very mother of kind- 
 ness! Hear her, O Abu Sumum! Behold her suf- 
 ferings ! Grant her petition, for the love of Allah, 
 and our Lord reward thee ! " pleaded the old woman 
 who had brought him in. 
 
 " I know not. It is not my line of business. And 
 yet, I bethink me, there is art in it," muttered the 
 sorcerer, relenting visibly " much art, for she is 
 the most skilful witch on earth; and no one else in 
 Masr, under Allah, could hope to overcome her 
 Ha ! What is this ? " He raised his hand to his 
 right ear, and stood intently listening, as if to some-
 
 62 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 thing just above him in the air. " I thank thee, O 
 Tarshushak ! What is this?" He turned to 
 Fitnah with a mien of righteous anger. " My serv- 
 ants tells me she has islamed. Is that true? If so, 
 why not inform me at the first? My time is wasted. 
 If she has islamed it is a crime most heinous to assail 
 her. May Allah " 
 
 " Mercy ! O my uncle, mercy ! " Both the women 
 flung themselves upon the wizard, stopping his mouth 
 and dragging down his arm upraised to curse them. 
 *' Wait but a moment ! Only listen ! They say that 
 she has islamed, being all bewitched. She has not 
 gone through all the ceremonies. She refuses, and 
 our lord the Pasha, by her spells, supports her. 
 Whether or no, she weds to-day my first-born son, 
 and she is barren and will keep him from all other 
 women. Thou shalt have much wealth." 
 
 Again the sorcerer went through the process of 
 relenting visibly. " Allah knows," he groaned, " it 
 is a cruel task you set me. It will take three days 
 and nights of fasting and seclusion spent in ceaseless 
 study, to overcome her servants who are in the air. 
 Not until they are vanquished can I mix the potion, 
 for they would neutralise my spells and make it 
 harmless. " 
 
 " But the wedding is to-day ! " wailed Fitnah, out 
 of patience. 
 
 " What matter, since her bale is of the lingering 
 sort, and not swift-slaying. Hear what I tell thee ! 
 If I fight for thee with demons and obtain the potion,
 
 VEILED WOMEN 63 
 
 use it not till three whole moons have waxed and 
 waned. Watch how thy son looks ; notice his be- 
 haviour! It may be she has islamed in good faith." 
 
 " All that thou wishest, only give the potion ! " 
 
 " After three days thou shalt have it, by the leave 
 of Allah!" 
 
 The sorcerer then changed his tone for one of 
 caution, urging, " The reward, O blessed lady ! It is 
 worth much money. And it is usual to give some- 
 thing in advance by way of earnest." 
 
 Fitnah untied a bundle which had lain beside her 
 all the while, and thrust it towards him. It contained 
 the best of all her jewels. Poor lady, all her treasures 
 
 nay, her life itself seemed light to give to save 
 her Yusuf from that thirsty ghoul. The wizard's 
 small eyes gloated on the heap. 
 
 " Woe on thee, Abu Sumum ! " cried the old woman. 
 " Art thou not ashamed to take more than is just 
 from so benevolent and kind a lady ? Thy heart is of 
 stone, not to be moved to bounty by her pious tears." 
 
 " Silence, woman ! " With a dignified and boun- 
 teous gesture, the sorcerer pushed back the bag of 
 trinkets, selecting for himself a single ring contain- 
 ing stones of value. " Allah witness, that I did but 
 test the generosity of our good mistress. But, being 
 poor and with some dreadful work before me hav- 
 ing, moreover, risked my two old ears in coming hither 
 
 I will, with thy permission, O Most Excellent, ac- 
 cept this trifle. That and thy gracious favour be my 
 only payment ! "
 
 64 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Uprising, he resumed again the woman's head- 
 dress, and in a woman's piping voice enjoined, as he 
 prepared to go, " Forget not to delay three months. 
 A day too soon might cause tremendous evil." 
 
 " Three months I will remember ! " answered 
 Fitnah dutifully; adding beneath her breath, 
 " Three days too long ! I think thou hast a mind 
 to fool me, O thou father of three months ! Well, 
 bring thy potion. But first we will essay some com- 
 mon poison without ceremony. Alas for Yusuf did 
 we wait three months ! " 
 
 She pressed both hands to her left side as if it 
 pained her.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE Englishwoman had surrendered to the impor- 
 tunities of all the household, and submitted to be 
 dressed entirely as an Eastern bride. Her feet and 
 hands had been well dyed with henna overnight; her 
 hair was intricately plaited, smeared with ointment 
 smelling strong of ambergris and sprinkled with gold 
 dust until it made a close and shining covering; her 
 lips and cheeks were painted, and her eyes enlarged 
 with kohl. Then came the putting on of splendid 
 clothes amid a din of chatter, above which strains of 
 music could be heard, wafted by gusts from the 
 selamlik, where festivity had reigned for two days 
 past. A jewelled crown completing her apparel, she 
 was led with joy-cries to the great reception-room, 
 and there enthroned upon the dais. The room was 
 fairly full of visitors already, and every minute there 
 were fresh arrivals. 
 
 Early that morning, Gulbeyzah had shown Bara- 
 kah her future lodging five rooms within the 
 woman's portion of the house, but self-contained, and 
 with a private door to the selamlik. She had beheld 
 a salon hung with mirrors, full of gilded chairs and 
 tables; and then the nuptial chamber, the bed with 
 silken bedclothes, much too good to use, beneath a 
 
 65
 
 66 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 canopy of cloth-of-gold embroidered. Four mon- 
 strous candles placed around the bed looked cere- 
 monial, and the perfume of rare flowers reminded her 
 of English death-rooms. 
 
 The vision of that room oppressed her now as she 
 sat idle, feeling like a wooden image, and met the 
 criticising stare of strangers who perfunctorily 
 blessed her. At first Gulbeyzah stayed with her and 
 played interpreter. Murjanah Khanum came and 
 kissed her, praying : " May the crown upon thy 
 brow inure thee to the burden of responsibility, may 
 the rich robes and the throne foreshadow honour for 
 thee; may the ordeal of long stillness teach thee 
 patience and long-suffering with dignity. May all 
 our blessings and our prayers to-day secure thee 
 fruitfulness, and mayst thou live to see thy children's 
 children flourish round thee. Our Lord preserve thee 
 ever in His grace. Amin." 
 
 Apart from this soft murmur of the Turkish lady, 
 she discerned no hint of a religious feeling with re- 
 gard to marriage. After an hour Gulbeyzah mingled 
 with the throng of visitors, and Barakah was left 
 alone to face the curiosity, the unknown talk about 
 her. Every one of all these women used strong scent, 
 and the smoke of divers kinds of incense dimmed the 
 air. The bride herself was saturated with per- 
 fumery ; which, however, could not drown the odour of 
 her own new garments. This grew sickening. Her 
 brain swam. She was stuck there like a painted doll 
 to be appraised, inspected.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 67 
 
 Anon the crowd was drawn away from her. She 
 sat unnoticed. A group of female musicians had 
 arrived, with them a well-known singer. There en- 
 sued a frightful caterwauling, as it seemed to Bara- 
 kah, but the rest were charmed, to judge from their 
 enraptured " Ah's ! " and ravished gestures. 
 
 Then a brown girl, clad diaphanously, writhed a 
 dance of lewd suggestion, ogling the bride the while 
 maliciously. Her performance was applauded even 
 by Murjanah Khanum. Gulbeyzah flew up to the 
 bride and whispered : " We are in great luck ! 
 Tahir, the greatest singer in the world, has been per- 
 forming for the bridegroom's friends in the selamlik. 
 He is coming here to sing to us, behind that screen. 
 Look! Those are his children." A small boy and 
 girl had stolen shyly in, and were made much of, 
 being passed from hand to hand. Gulbeyzah ran off 
 to convey the news to other rooms. 
 
 Another minute and dead silence fell. All watched 
 the screen. Up leapt an eerie note, sustained till it 
 became a terror to the ear, when all at once it broke 
 into a shower of trills like impish laughter. This 
 was repeated thrice, and then the singer struck a 
 solemn and majestic measure a religious strain, 
 which his strange voice embroidered with all human 
 passions in their natural tones. Barakah forgot her 
 weariness. This singing was like nothing she had 
 ever heard. It seemed to dignify all life with a 
 tremendous meaning. All unawares she joined the 
 gusty sigh which swept the whole assembly when the
 
 68 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 last note died. There followed a quick panting 
 melody of lover's sighs, more like a bird's song than 
 the effort of a human voice; then came a wail of 
 more than human anguish, and then the singing 
 ceased quite unexpectedly. There was a storm of 
 moans and prayers for more, but Tahir, the great 
 singer, had already gone. 
 
 Barakah became once more aware of stiffness, head- 
 ache, and a burning mouth. She called to Hamdi, 
 Yusuf's little brother, one of her former pupils, to 
 bring water to her. He ran off at once, but brought, 
 instead of water, cloying sherbet which increased her 
 thirst. Her eyelids were so stiffened they would 
 hardly close; her eyeballs ached; the stiffness of the 
 paint upon her cheeks became an iron mask. She 
 felt pilloried, derided, miserably alone, when lo ! a 
 small soft hand touched hers confidingly. It was the 
 singer's little daughter, who, grown tired of sweets 
 and petting, had come to the one lonely person in the 
 room, the quiet place. She looked up in the face 
 of Barakah and smiled. Her brother, a still smaller 
 child, had followed her. They both sat down without 
 the slightest ceremony, and with their heads against 
 her knees, their hands in hers, fell fast asleep. This 
 little group, when it was noticed, caused much laugh- 
 ter and a shout: "Mabrukah!" (lucky). The 
 bride, a statue of endurance, paid no heed. 
 
 At last a great noise came from the selamlik. A 
 eunuch rushed to say that the procession of the bride- 
 groom to the mosque had just returned. At once,
 
 VEILED WOMEN 69 
 
 a heavy veil, precluding sight, was flung on Barakah. 
 The bride's train formed. With tapers and with 
 garlands, amid joy-cries, she was led to her own 
 gilded salon, and there left alone. In the same in- 
 stant, so it seemed to her, the bridegroom came. Her 
 veil was lifted. She felt like to die. She dared not 
 raise her eyes for fear of weeping. The ritual words 
 she had been schooled to say escaped her memory. 
 But, as luck befell, they were unneeded. 
 
 "Grand Dieu!" cried Yusuf Bey. "The fools 
 the miscreants have made you look like one of 
 them. Your face your hair ! Ah, mon amour ! 
 Ma colombe ! " 
 
 She was obliged to laugh, and the nice-looking, 
 eager youth laughed with her. Fatigue and head- 
 ache fell off from her like a garment. 
 
 On the next afternoon, when Barakah, at peace 
 with all the world, was sitting in her gilded parlour, 
 on the cushioned window-sill, peeping through the 
 lattice at red masts and flags, the decorations for her 
 wedding not yet taken down, it happened that she 
 called for water. That cry resounded through the 
 whole haramlik in the hours of heat, and slaves with 
 pitchers waited always ready to obey it. The girl 
 who answered brought a vase of amber fluid, which 
 she proclaimed the most delicious sherbet known to 
 woman. The lady Fitnah had herself prepared it 
 for the bride's delight. Barakah took one sip, dis- 
 liked the taste, and, only waiting for politeness till 
 the maid had gone, poured out the rest upon a plant
 
 70 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 of jasmine in a flower-pot which stood upon a shelf 
 within the lattice. A little later she was very sick, 
 and went and laid down on her bed. She was feeling 
 better when her husband was announced. 
 
 " Yusuf ! " she cried, as he came in, " it is so 
 curious. Madame your mother sent me up some 
 special sherbet. I tasted it, and found it disagree- 
 able, so I emptied all the rest upon the plant there. 
 Then I felt so ill" 
 
 She got no further. Yusuf, following the direc- 
 tion of her gesture, had fixed his eyes upon the flower- 
 pot. They were riveted. The plant was dead, a 
 shrivelled, blackened object. With one despairing 
 cry he clutched his forehead and rushed headlong 
 from the room.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 " O WRETCHED day ! O death of honour ! O ca- 
 lamity ! Didst thou not swear to guard my love from 
 danger, O my father? Yet death has reached her 
 poison ! This house is now gehennum. Woe to all 
 of us. O Allah, ease the sorrow of my heart. O 
 Lord, behold me rent in twain My wife ! My 
 mother!" 
 
 Yusuf had burst into the room of the selamlik 
 where his father was transacting business with 
 the steward of his property. Regardless of the 
 stranger's presence, he gave way to grief and rage, 
 falling prostrate on the pavement, tearing at it with 
 his hands, and biting at it with his teeth convulsively. 
 The steward, a person of discretion, rose at once and 
 asked permission to retire. The Pasha nodded, and, 
 when he was gone, bent over his demented child, in- 
 quiring of his cause of grief with heart near broken, 
 for he feared the worst had happened. By dint of 
 patience he elicited the simple facts, which, when he 
 knew them, eased his mind so greatly that he smiled 
 and rendered fervent thanks to the Most High. The 
 Englishwoman was not dead; the poisonous attempt 
 had failed; the vision of an angry Consul, void of 
 decency, transgressing with investigations every 
 
 71
 
 72 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 man's intrinsic right to sole and secret jurisdiction in 
 his own harira, raising a scandal far more dreadful 
 than the sad event, receded suddenly. 
 
 " Be not distressed, my son ! " he urged benignly. 
 " Praise God, as I do, that the matter is no worse. 
 Think! a mere plant of jasmine dead in place of her 
 thou lovest. The call is for rejoicing, not for grief. 
 Have patience, O my soul ! Control thy spirits ! " 
 
 " Have patience, sayest thou ? " sobbed Yusuf . 
 " My anguish is more terrible than flesh can bear. 
 My mother, she who bore me, whom I love by nature, 
 has turned my enemy, to poison her by whom alone I 
 live. I hate the murderess of my delight, and would 
 destroy her ; but lo ! she is my mother, and I can but 
 weep. My soul is torn asunder. All the world is 
 blackened. O Allah, take my life ! O Lord, protect 
 me!" 
 
 Muhammad Pasha was profoundly moved by this 
 lament. He thanked God for vouchsafing him a son 
 who, in the moment of extreme affliction, could still 
 preserve such justice in his sentiments. 
 
 " Take comfort, O my son ! Be thankful that no 
 harm has happened," he insisted tenderly. 
 
 But Yusuf would not be consoled. The soothing 
 tone enraged him, seeming to make a trifle of his 
 agony. He leaped upon his feet and cried: 
 
 " No harm ! O Allah ! Is it nought then, what I 
 tell thee? Then thou hast no love for me. Thou 
 art my father; thou didst promise to preserve her 
 from my mother's malice. Thou seest my despair,
 
 VEILED WOMEN 73 
 
 and yet thou smilest. O Allah, kill me now, for I 
 am orphaned cruelly. Both my parents hate me, and 
 deride my sufferings. I go to my mother Murjanah, 
 who is kind and gracious. She will weep with me." 
 
 And before the older man could grasp his purpose, 
 much less intervene, that victim of a duteous heart 
 had fled the room. After a space of thought the 
 Pasha followed to Murjanah Khanum's quarters, 
 where he found the young man writhing on a bed 
 of cushions, while his second mother wept with him 
 and prayed. 
 
 " Listen, O Yusuf, O my son ! " began the father 
 earnestly. " I have been thinking. Thou and thy 
 bride shall have a house apart " 
 
 But at his voice the young man, foaming at the 
 mouth, sprang up from his couch with teeth and 
 hands clenched in a final spasm, and, flinging up his 
 hands, fell back insensible. 
 
 " Go, fetch the leech, the fit will pass, in sh' Allah. 
 Be secret, lest tongues wag to our dishonour," said 
 Murjanah, and the Pasha went at once to the se- 
 lamlik, returning with a black slave, skilled in surgery. 
 Yusuf was bled. While assisting in the operation 
 the Pasha asked Murjanah: 
 
 " What punishment is meet for her we wot of? " 
 
 " Forgiveness, for the love of Allah ! " was the 
 answer. " Upbraid her on religious grounds and 
 then forgive her. We know her generous, impulsive 
 nature. Thy sudden kindness will affect her more 
 than blows. Poor soul, she must have suffered very
 
 74. VEILED WOMEN 
 
 deeply. My slaves inform me that she saw this Eng- 
 lishwoman as a kind of ghoul. To-morrow, with her 
 nature, she may wish to hug her. Remove the young 
 folks for the present." 
 
 " I had thought of that," rejoined the Pasha. 
 " By Allah, they shall have the garden-house to- 
 wards Rodah. To-morrow I will have the place pre- 
 pared for them." 
 
 When Yvisuf Bey came back to life he wept anew, 
 but weakly, helplessly. In that condition he was 
 carried to his own apartments by the surgeon, with 
 the Pasha's help, Murjanah going on before to warn 
 the bride. 
 
 This sad procession happened to encounter a slave 
 of Leylah Khanum's who, hearing Yusuf's groans, 
 ran off with screams and told her mistress he was 
 dead. At once the whole harim was filled with wail- 
 ing. Fitnah Khanum, thunderstruck by the appal- 
 ling news, defiled her face with dirt and tore her 
 raiment. She rushed shrieking to the bridal 
 chamber, as did every woman and child who by re- 
 lationship could claim the right to enter. She knelt 
 before the bride, who stood apart, bewildered, and 
 besought her: 
 
 " Remove the spell, restore him, for the love of 
 Allah. I sinned. I here confess it. Thou art 
 much too strong for me. Thou, by thy magic, hast 
 turned round the sword to pierce my bosom. I was 
 impatient, I am justly punished. The wisest of man- 
 kind advised me I should wait three months. Thou
 
 VEILED WOMEN 75 
 
 seest how I love thee, how I kneel to thee and kiss thy 
 feet. Accept my life's devotion : only save him ! " 
 
 Without seeking for an answer to her prayer, she 
 rose distractedly and went and flung herself upon the 
 bed where Yusuf lay. He moaned : 
 
 " My mother ! Oh, alas, thy bitterness ! How 
 couldst thou seek to rob me of delight? Behold me 
 dead ! Now art thou satisfied ? O Lord have mercy 
 on me ! O Calamity ! " 
 
 Blubbering loudly, she implored forgiveness. 
 Soon his arms went round her; they lay, hugging 
 one another, sobbing, cooing, while the spectators 
 wept aloud in tender sympathy. The Pasha's face 
 was hidden in his pocket-handkerchief. Murjanah 
 Khanum murmured prayers beneath her breath. 
 
 " O my despair ! my wickedness ! " the mother 
 shrieked. 
 
 " My grief, my desolation; n6w my joy ! " sobbed 
 Yusuf. 
 
 " O Lord, relieve me, for my heart is bursting," 
 moaned the Pasha. 
 
 " Oh, what do I behold. How rapture pains me ! " 
 came from bystanders. All, in the selfish orgy of 
 emotion, forgot the terrified and wondering bride, 
 who, understanding not a word of what was said, 
 surveyed a riddle. She asked the Pasha what the 
 matter was. He answered with a hiccup of emotion : 
 
 " It is nothing, mademoiselle. It will soon pass. 
 Have no fear ! " which only added to her stupefac- 
 tion.
 
 76 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 She had seen such exhibitions in ill-governed nurs- 
 eries, but never among grown-up folks before. To 
 account for all the outcry she imagined some tre- 
 mendous tragedy, and waited anxiously to learn its 
 nature. 
 
 It was close on midnight ere the chamber emptied 
 and, left alone with Yusuf , she could put her question. 
 Then he told her the whole story with frequent inter- 
 jection of "Oh, how I suffered!" She learnt that 
 she had narrowly escaped a cruel death. But how 
 her danger bore upon the scenes she had just wit- 
 nessed, or in what manner they were meant to reas- 
 sure her, she could not divine. Yusuf himself 
 bestowed no thought on her predicament, immersed 
 in contemplation of his own emotions. Feeling alone 
 and outcast, she wept a little ere she went to sleep. 
 
 In the morning Yusuf had recovered his accus- 
 tomed spirits. When she alluded with a shudder to 
 him mother's wickedness, he bade her have no fear; 
 all that was past. From that day forth his mother 
 would be sure to cherish her. Her mind derived no 
 comfort from that light assurance; it remained per- 
 turbed until the Pasha came with tidings of a new 
 arrangement he had made for her and Yusuf to so- 
 journ in a pleasure-house of his among the suburbs.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE pleasure-house was a two-storeyed building, 
 much dilapidated, having been unoccupied by the 
 proprietor for many years. The garden, originally 
 made for pleasure by the Pasha's father, had since 
 been used exclusively for growing vegetables. It 
 was now like several fields with palm trees set at inter- 
 vals, the whole surrounded by a high mud wall. The 
 Pasha in one day had had the rooms cleaned out, the 
 snakes extracted from their walls by a professional 
 charmer; the next he sent down servants with the 
 furniture, and the same evening Barakah arrived. 
 
 The house resembled a gigantic lantern in the blue 
 of night with light exuding from its many lattices. De- 
 scending from the harim carriage which had brought 
 her, together with two women and the girl Fatumah, 
 her own slaves, she was met by Yusuf, whom she had 
 not seen all day. He introduced to her two men a 
 new experience, which seemed an earnest of less strict 
 seclusion. One, who bore a torch, bowed low with 
 eyes downcast. He was the gardener. The other 
 a most honest-looking youth gazed awestruck 
 at her shrouded form, his large brown eyes dilated to 
 the very utmost, while a vast ecstatic smile bared all 
 his teeth a smile which told of infinite fidelity. 
 
 77
 
 78 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " His name," said Yusuf, " is Ghandur my 
 faithful friend. He is your water-carrier, and will 
 be always within call in case you have some errand 
 out of doors." 
 
 Yusuf then walked apart with the two men, while 
 Sawwab, the eunuch, showed the lady her apartments. 
 Sawwab had come as escort to the carriage and re- 
 turned with it as soon as he had seen her settled com- 
 fortably. A leering crone was left to guard pro- 
 priety, a task which she performed extremely ill on 
 that first evening; for instead of checking the high 
 spirits of the slave-girls, who romped for joy at their 
 release from stricter discipline, she smiled upon their 
 antics, and herself performed a most improper dance 
 before the bride. 
 
 For several days Yusuf remained contented in the 
 house and garden; while Barakah, half-dazed but 
 happy too, beheld him as incarnate passion, not as 
 man. She was the first to tire of loves and doves, 
 and try to talk of something sensible. Yusuf ap- 
 peared to think the speech of every day a waste of 
 time between them. 
 
 Then came the period of tiffs, the fretful wakening. 
 Yusuf began to deal in sentiment about his mother, 
 proclaiming it a hardship that his wife should still 
 distrust her. 
 
 " She is kind and tender O, how dear to me ! 
 Go to her, Barakah ! Kneel at her feet, embrace her 
 hands, and she will surely pardon." 
 
 " Pardon ? What, pray ? " exclaimed the bride
 
 VEILED WOMEN 79 
 
 indignantly. " It is for her to ask pardon of me 
 whom, kindly recollect, she tried to poison." 
 
 " She is older than you ; she is my mother. It 
 behoves you to be modest and submissive towards her. 
 I have forgiven all, and so should you. She is my 
 mother." 
 
 It was a relief one morning when the Pasha came 
 and bore the young man off, declaring jokingly that 
 he would die of too much sweet if he remained im- 
 mured there longer. Of Barakah he said the same, 
 informing her that Leylah Khanum and Gulbeyzah 
 would call that afternoon to take her out upon a round 
 of visits. 
 
 Then Yusuf took to being absent all day long, 
 but came home gladly in the evenings, full of love. 
 He volunteered no tidings of his day's amusements, 
 and when she questioned him about them seemed to 
 think it odd. 
 
 " All that is not your business," he informed her 
 kindly. 
 
 She hinted at the pleasures of companionship, the 
 bond of common interests. He laughed, inquiring: 
 
 " Are we not companions ? Have we not interests 
 in common? You teach me English, and I teach you 
 Arabic; we compare the customs of the races. And 
 we love! Are not. these interests much greater than to 
 hear what Fulan said to Zeyd, what Zeyd replied, and 
 whether Hafiz or Mahmud obtained the Government 
 appointment? That is the life of men, a passing of 
 the hours till night, when they return to the beloved.
 
 80 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 If anything of weight befell I should inform you. 
 What pleasure could it give to you to hear repeated 
 the gabble of a lot of people you will never know ? " 
 
 Perceiving much in Yusuf's tastes and conversa- 
 tion which pious English people would have thought 
 ungodly, she gasped a little on discovering he was 
 religious. Attracted by a faith which showed some 
 tolerance of human failings, she was studying the 
 rudiments of El Islam by Yusuf's guidance; acquir- 
 ing prayers and all the rules for saying them, in- 
 cluding washings and the proper time and place. 
 Nothing seemed left to the believer's judgment, it 
 was all laid down. When, at a lesson in prostra- 
 tion, she was moved to laughter, he became quite 
 terrible, and warned her threateningly that in this 
 country any man or woman was likely to be torn 
 in pieces for a hint of blasphemy. The awe she felt 
 was oddly mixed with fascination. 
 
 There were details she would not have chosen 
 in her cloistered life, but on the whole it was the 
 happiest that she had ever known. She was waited 
 on hand and foot who had known drudgery; her 
 husband used her as a reigning beauty who, but a 
 few weeks since, had been esteemed uninteresting. 
 Then there were pleasures of society. The Pasha's 
 carriage often came, with one or other of the ladies 
 and Gulbeyzah, to take her round to call on grand 
 harims. She was received with favour by great 
 ladies. One, a princess, by name Aminah Khanum, 
 insisted on her spending a whole day alone with her.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 81 
 
 This dame, though elderly, still dressed to charm. 
 Her rooms were full of European furniture, but she 
 herself sat always on a sofa, smoking a long, old- 
 fashioned pipe with coral mouthpiece. 
 
 " You are not of the first rank in your own coun- 
 try," she told Barakah to start with, bluntly ; " or 
 you would not be where you are. You do not know 
 the people I have met in France and England, so 
 don't pretend you do. I value frankness." It 
 seemed she knew the English pretty thoroughly. 
 
 She spoke good French and talked of Western 
 Europe with intelligence, seeming in general to ap- 
 prove its customs. One little speech of hers amazed 
 the visitor, intruding as it did abruptly upon lighter 
 talk: 
 
 " The Europeans have degraded love and made 
 life banal. They spread life's agitation over a vast 
 surface and account it progress; we value depth 
 and stillness. Enlarging each life's pool, they make 
 it shallow. A woman's life is of the feelings, which 
 are dulled, not quickened, by extensive interests. 
 Their men too suffer, growing superficial, flippant, 
 without depth of character." 
 
 When Barakah retailed this saying to Gulbeyzah, 
 the Circassian sighed : " She knows ! " and told a 
 curious story. 
 
 It was that years ago a European officer in the 
 Egyptian service had wooed Aminah Khanum 
 secretly; and she had been entirely captivated by 
 his charms. But endeavouring to sound his char-
 
 82 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 acter, she found him shallow. She made him islam, 
 but his carelessness informed her that conversion 
 meant no more for him than access to her. In the 
 same way she perceived that what he felt for her 
 was nothing more profound than the desire to add 
 a Muslim lady to his list of conquests. The blow 
 was dire, for she was then extremely lovely, and a 
 great examiner of men, having divorced or killed 
 ten husbands. She would not have him tell a tale 
 among his kind, yet could not conquer her intense 
 desire of him. What could she do? She satisfied 
 her heart, and the next morning gave him death in 
 easy form, being well versed in poisons. 
 
 Barakah cried out in horror; but Gulbeyzah 
 shrugged. 
 
 " What else could woman, not a harlot, do? He 
 was an infidel, and would have bragged of her. Ever 
 since then Aminah Khanum has a kindness for the 
 Franks, though she deplores their levity." 
 
 " And would you do the same ? " 
 
 " One cannot tell beforehand. I am not a prin- 
 cess. Either that or kill myself. May God pre- 
 serve us from unsanctioned love of all kinds ! " 
 
 Barakah felt overwhelmed by the intenseness, the 
 tragic vigour of these women, who seemed mild and 
 playful. 
 
 Mrs. Cameron called at the garden-house one 
 afternoon, and Barakah was proud to give her a real 
 English tea. Except for the costume, which was 
 much richer, and an added glow of happiness, the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 88 
 
 visitor, she felt convinced, could not detect the 
 slightest change in her. One thing at least was cer- 
 tain, she had not deteriorated, as Mrs. Cameron 
 before the marriage had foretold she would. The 
 visitor was amiable, and made no allusion to the 
 past. Before departing she made Barakah an offer 
 of some knitting wool and needles she had just re- 
 ceived from England. The wife of Yusuf Bey ac- 
 cepted gladly, for she began to feel the weight of 
 idle hands. 
 
 The wools arriving an hour later, she debated 
 what to make with them; and, being at the time in 
 English mood, decided on a pair of slippers for her 
 husband. But when she told him of her purpose, 
 he frowned wonderingly, and asked: 
 
 " Are you a shoemaker? " 
 
 Utterly disconcerted by so apt a question, she tried 
 to paint the beauty of the project, but he could not 
 see it. 
 
 " If you want slippers, buy them in the market. 
 It is not your trade. When one like you employs 
 the needle, it is not for use. Ask my mother; she 
 will show you the right work to do." 
 
 He had his own ideas. The coloured wools were 
 given to Fatumah, who made anklets of them, and 
 other personal adornments, which amused her for a 
 week. 
 
 Deducing from her wish to make him slippers 
 that she found the hours long in his absence, Yusuf 
 procured her botiks in French and English. He
 
 84. VEILED WOMEN 
 
 also brought her a fine musical box, which played 
 dance-music in stentorian tones to the rapture of 
 the slaves, who kept it going all day long. The 
 Pasha came and begged her not to imagine that 
 she was debarred from every pleasure. It would be 
 cruel to confine a damsel of her breeding as strictly 
 as a native of the country. Let her but name her 
 wishes ; they should be deferred to. He even threw 
 out hints that she and Yusuf might possibly see Paris 
 in the coming summer. 
 
 Thus exhorted, and encouraged by the sight of 
 women like Aminah Khanum, who seemed to order 
 every one their way, she forsook the timid attitude 
 which had been hers since marriage, and viewed ex- 
 istence with commanding eyes. The old woman who 
 had been engaged to play propriety, was horrified 
 one day to see her talking bare-faced at a window 
 to Ghandur, the water-carrier. The crone expostu- 
 lated, coaxed, entreated, and at length, when all 
 proved vain, informed the husband, who, to her utter 
 consternation, laughed. 
 
 "Ghandur?" he cried; "Ghandur is my right 
 foot," and immediately applied that member to the 
 beldame's person. 
 
 The old woman did not dare to speak again to 
 Barakah, though the latter plagued her mercilessly, 
 crying " Ghandur ! " here and " Ghandur ! " there, 
 for the treat of seeing her curvet and wring her 
 hands.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 85 
 
 One morning, after Yusuf had departed, she grew 
 conscious of a great oppression due to lack of outlet. 
 The feeling had been with her vaguely for some days. 
 Now she knew it for a craving; she must see an Eng- 
 lish person to revive her fading interest in the strange 
 things around her. 
 
 " Ghandur ! " she cried. He answered " Hadir ! " /- 
 " Fetch me a carriage for the fifth hour after 
 noon." 
 
 " Hadir ! " he said again ; and from her lattice she 
 saw him speed off on his errand like the wind. 
 There were few carriages for hire in Cairo in those 
 days, and it was necessary to bespeak one early. 
 
 " The lady wishes to go out ? Shall I accompany 
 her? " cooed the old woman, who was hovering near. 
 
 "No. I go alone!" 
 
 " I had better accompany the lady." 
 
 " No, I tell thee ! " 
 
 The lady stamped her foot, when the duenna 
 shuffled off, wagging her head forebodingly and 
 mumbling. 
 
 "How absurd!" thought Barakah. "Haven't 
 Yusuf and the Pasha told me twenty times that 
 women, in the kind of shroud they make us wear, 
 can go anywhere alone without attracting notice? " 
 
 When the carriage came a hooded one she 
 sallied forth, correctly veiled, escorted by Ghandur, 
 who, seeing no one with her, asked leave to mount 
 the box beside the driver. She gave it, feeling sure
 
 86 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 that the old woman was watching the departure 
 through some upper lattice. Ghandur sprang up 
 with a delighted grin, quite rigid with the pride of 
 high preferment.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 IN the sandy lane outside the Camerons' garden- 
 gate some carriages already waited; a saddle- 
 horse or two and many donkeys, all in charge of 
 servants, twitched their ears and swished their 
 tails in the deep shadow by the wall. Barakah felt 
 disappointed and annoyed. It seemed that she 
 had lighted on a great reception, when her desire 
 had been a quiet chat with Mrs. Cameron. Pre- 
 vision of Ghandur's amazement if she gave the 
 order to turn back, and the satisfaction which her 
 quick return would give the mother of propriety, 
 made her go on; but she determined to stay only 
 a few minutes and then walk home, the evening 
 being cool, to spend the time. With this in view, 
 upon alighting she gave money to Ghandur, bidding 
 him dismiss the carriage and himself go home. He 
 made a good deal of remonstrance, but at last sub- 
 mitted, understanding that the people of the house 
 would furnish means of transit. He considered it 
 his place, however, to remain in waiting. 
 
 Barakah then went in, much hampered by the 
 stare of squatting servants which seemed to cling 
 like fetters to her ankles. A Berberi butler ushered 
 
 87
 
 88 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 her into the drawing-room and announced her with 
 the single word: 
 
 " Harim." 
 
 The room was even fuller than she had expected. 
 Her entrance seemed to cause a great sensation. 
 Her heart sank, there was singing in her ears ; she 
 encountered all those faces with a sense of drowning. 
 Moving mechanicaii} ui a trance of apprehension, 
 it was with surprise a minute later that she found 
 herself ensconced in a deck-chair beside an open win- 
 dow, alive and quite uninjured, though her pulse 
 beat high. She removed her mouth-veil then and 
 looked about her. It seemed to be a. gathering of 
 the whole English colony, with the addition of some 
 French and German ladies. The Consul, her aver- 
 sion, was talking with some other men, who formed 
 a standing group. He took no notice of her, rather 
 pointedly. The women, thirty at the least, kept 
 up a din of chatter. 
 
 The hostess came and introduced her to the ladies 
 near her. Though the manner in which this was 
 done was very kind, Barakah felt that Mrs. Cameron 
 disliked her coming. That lady looked upon her as 
 a fallen creature, to be visited and seen occasion- 
 ally out of charity, no longer to be classed with 
 English women. The prejudice stung Barakah to 
 downright impudence. Abashment left her. She 
 began to chatter and laugh loudly just to let her 
 hostess know that she was somebody. Sipping her 
 tea, she talked of harim life, deriding the false
 
 VEILED WOMEN 89 
 
 notions which prevailed concerning it. It was per- 
 fectly delightful, not a bit what Europeans thought. 
 She proceeded to retail her own experiences. In a 
 trice she gathered half a score of eager listeners. 
 
 But is not this or that the case invariably, they 
 inquired? She was able to confute them always, 
 with amusing instances. She sank her voice, the 
 listening heads drew nearer; there were stifled 
 giggles. Certain stories she had picked up from 
 Gulbeyzah were quite killing. She told of the old 
 woman who was set to guard her " an Oriental 
 Mrs. Grundy," she assured them and her horror 
 at her going out alone that afternoon. 
 
 " But my husband doesn't mind a bit, of course. 
 The dear man lets me do just what I like. It is 
 only middle-class people nowadays who are strict 
 about seclusion. . . . Oh, by the way, do you know 
 Princess Aminah? . . ." 
 
 She had never in her life talked so effectively. 
 The stored frivolity of weeks was spent in one short 
 hour; while with the tail of an eye she noted Mrs. 
 Cameron's disgust at her small social triumph, the 
 shrugs and glances she exchanged with her own 
 kind. 
 
 While her success was at its height, she read- 
 justed her white muslin mouth- veil and got up 
 to go. 
 
 " Thank you for a most delightful hour," she 
 gushed at taking leave, receiving in reply a look 
 which plainly said : " You have deteriorated."
 
 90 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Going out upon the wave of her excitement, she 
 suddenly remembered that she had dismissed her 
 carriage. It was no matter. The distance to be 
 traversed was no more than half a mile, the road a 
 straight one, shady at that hour. The little walk 
 would serve to cool her wits. 
 
 But Ghandur, who was squatting by the outer 
 door, sprang up at sight of her. He bade her 
 " Wait ! " with a profusion of engaging grins and 
 frantic gestures. Taking her assent for granted, 
 when she stopped to argue, he set off down the lane 
 at a great pace, trailing a plume of dust from either 
 heel. 
 
 Seeing she still moved on, despite her servant's 
 warning, the doorkeeper of the house stepped for- 
 ward and, saluting, begged her to return indoors. 
 When she refused, he shrugged despairingly and 
 with some word which sounded like an oath went 
 back to his own seat. The waiting grooms and 
 donkey-boys called out, and standing together in a 
 little crowd stared after her. She thought them 
 merely rude. 
 
 She moved against the stream of country people 
 returning homeward from their business in the city. 
 They stared at her in passing, and occasionally 
 made remarks which sounded friendly. The dust 
 raised by the trail of robes, and by the donkeys' 
 hoofs, was some annoyance; but the dust itself 
 became a splendour where the sunset caught it; the 
 shadows were deep blue, enhancing colours of the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 91 
 
 crowd; and the balm of evening was in every breath 
 she drew. To Barakah, who had not walked for 
 months, the very motion was a comfort. She stepped 
 forward briskly, musing on the scene she had just 
 quitted. 
 
 What were those women saying of her now? Mrs. 
 Cameron was no doubt declaiming, and they all 
 agreed with her. Every word that she had said 
 was turned against her. On that perception she was 
 filled with shame. The unkindness, the indecency of 
 holding up her husband's people to provide amuse- 
 ment for a hostile race appeared unthinkable, the 
 basest treachery. A wave of tenderness for Yiisuf, 
 for Ghandur, the slave-girls, even the old woman, 
 all the home surroundings, overcame her ; while her 
 mind abhorred the frigid, callous English, who had 
 lured her on to make a mock of her. Why should 
 she ever see them more? She hated them. Phrases 
 which had passed her lips ten minutes since were now 
 abominable a source of shame that could not 
 cease, it seemed, but must flow on for ever till the end 
 of time. How had she uttered them? It was their 
 fault for scorning her, for placing her on an un- 
 natural footing, making speech a pitfall. The 
 harim was her natural refuge, her true home. She 
 never wished to quit its shade again. 
 
 Thus fiercely musing, she pursued the sandy lane 
 until she reached a point where a road branched off 
 from it at right angles. 
 
 Upon the corner stood a whitewashed shrine,
 
 92 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 pink in the glow of sunset, the crescent flashing 
 on its egg-like dome; beside it a great tree under 
 whose foliage a crowd of men were sitting out on 
 stools, smoking and drinking coffee in the shade. 
 Some of these took notice of her, pointing rudely, 
 attracting the attention of the others and the 
 passers-by. Supposing something wrong with her 
 attire, she quickened step. Her road ran through 
 a village. She heard shouts and laughter. A well- 
 dressed man strode past her from behind, and turn- 
 ing searched her eyes. Spurred now by fear, she 
 tried to hurry on ; but found herself the centre of a 
 crowd, whose members, moving with her, jabbered, 
 pointed, jeered. One tweaked her habbarah; an- 
 other seized her arm as if to feel the muscle. Her 
 heart beat loud, her throat was choked with sobs 
 repressed by terror. 
 
 The mob grew every moment bolder in its menace. 
 A stalwart peasant-woman barred the way before 
 her, grinning prepared, it seemed, to pluck away 
 her mouth-veil. 
 
 Barakah had paused, cowering, not knowing where 
 to turn for succour, when the shout of a familiar 
 voice relieved the strain and let her tears have vent. 
 Ghandur came on the scene, leading a saddled ass. 
 His explanations soon dispersed the mob. He lifted 
 her upon the donkey; and in a moment, as things 
 happen in a dream, she was at home again, confront- 
 ing Yusuf, who approached the gate as they 
 arrived.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 93 
 
 He seemed thunder-struck at her appearance. 
 Hearing Ghandur's story, he asked God for help, 
 and raised his arm to strike her. She fell fainting 
 at his feet.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 WHEN Barakah came to herself, she was lying in 
 her bedroom, which was dim and seemed unusually 
 lofty, for her bed was on the floor, and a feeble lamp 
 confined in perforated brass, which gave what light 
 there was, stood down beside it. The pattern of the 
 brass-work, much enlarged, was faintly reproduced 
 on wall and ceiling. She was alone, but from a dis- 
 tance sounds of wailing reached her, and she heard 
 her husband cursing the old woman for neglect of 
 duty. 
 
 When she recalled her glee at setting forth that 
 afternoon, the course of subsequent events seemed 
 very cruel. After such misfortunes, consolation was 
 her due; instead of which the house was in commo- 
 tion, Yusuf mad. Self-pity overwhelmed her. She 
 was all alone among strange savage beings without 
 sympathy; while those who might have understood 
 and shared her feelings were her enemies. She lay 
 with face down on her pillow, weeping silently. 
 
 By and by Yusuf came into the room. She could 
 tell by his hard breathing he was still enraged. 
 Afraid that he was going to beat her, she lay quiet, 
 as though still unconscious; but in a little while 
 a sob betrayed her. Then his wrath descended. 
 
 94
 
 VEILED WOMEN 95 
 
 French deserting him, he raved at her in Arabic and 
 Turkish ; and her inability to catch his meaning made 
 him angrier. She lay in terror, crying bitterly, 
 replying to such questions as she understood, 
 until his fury sank to lamentation and his French 
 returned. 
 
 " My honour ! " was his cry. " You have be- 
 trayed my honour in thus going forth alone. The 
 servants of the English house who know you will 
 send a whisper and a laugh through all the markets. 
 And those who saw you walking in the dust! . . . 
 Have you no shame, no delicacy? What will my 
 father say? The news will kill him! You have 
 killed my father ! " 
 
 " You do not think of me at all," sobbed Barakah. 
 " Here have I been insulted, scared to death by your 
 vile people, and you scold me! I wish that I had 
 never seen you. I am so unhappy! In England 
 people would be punished for the things you 
 do. Those horrible men and women who attacked 
 me" 
 
 " May Allah burn them, every one ! " cried 
 Yusuf in fierce Arabic. " Gladly would I pluck out 
 all their tongues ! They witnessed the dishonour of 
 my name, and will relate it." 
 
 The wrangle lasted far into the night. At last, 
 however, Yusuf's tone relented; they embraced, and 
 he demanded the whole history of her ill-starred visit. 
 But when he heard that men had been in the same 
 room with her, his wrath redoubled. He beat his
 
 96 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 breast, he gnashed his teeth, he slapped her face, he 
 paced the room denouncing her depravity. 
 
 " You are a brute ! " she cried hysterically. 
 " What harm if men were present ? They did not 
 come near me. I am not like your women bred 
 up to think of one thing only. Nor are English- 
 men like you; they have respect for women. You 
 are mad." 
 
 Yusuf was really mad, or seemed so, at that 
 moment. He called her evil names in every tongue 
 of which he had a smattering; and then in French, 
 made childish by his rage, accused all Europeans of 
 disgusting conduct. 
 
 " You deny it hem? You are a liar, for the 
 fact is known. We are not ignorant; we travel, and 
 we have their books. What say you of their balls, 
 their public dances, where women nay, young 
 virgins choose what man they please, deserting 
 husband or fiance empty names ! and dance and 
 afterwards retire with him? The fact is known! 
 The race is shameless may God punish them ! It 
 is forbidden for us to cast up former things in mar- 
 riage; but for the future I command you to forsake 
 their filthiness. Go once again, and we shall know 
 you worthless! Swear to renounce their company, 
 or I will kill you ! " 
 
 She sat up and confronted him with eyes of fire. 
 
 " Oh, brute ! " she panted ; " monster ! rabid dog ! 
 I have had enough of you and your behaviour. I
 
 VEILED WOMEN 97 
 
 i 
 
 shall leave you. To-morrow I shall go to the Con- 
 sul and tell him how you struck me ! " 
 
 " You shall not leave this room. I am your 
 master." 
 
 " Lock the door, block up the window, bind me, 
 guard me, I still will find some way to let the Consul 
 know. You shall be punished I have sworn it. 
 I have had enough, I say. I shall return to Eng- 
 land." 
 
 " Your talk is madness ! Have a care ! The pun- 
 ishment is death for one renouncing El Islam. Say, 
 is that your meaning? Your own slaves will kill 
 you!" 
 
 He put the question in blood-curdling tones. But 
 Barakah, dissolved in tears, made no rejoinder. A 
 minute later he was once more at her side, imploring 
 mercy, declaring her his light of life, his pearl of 
 pearls. She still whimpered, " I shall tell the Con- 
 sul." 
 
 At last she fell into a troubled sleep. 
 
 When she woke again it was broad daylight; her 
 coffee and a kind of pancake, which composed her 
 breakfast every morning, steamed upon a tray be- 
 side her. Yusuf had left the room. He came back 
 presently, and, kneeling down, implored her to for- 
 get his madness. Enjoying her advantage in a list- 
 less way, she put on an exaggerated air of feebleness, 
 and moaned: 
 
 " You were too cruel. I shall tell the Consul."
 
 98 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 At that he sprang up as a man demented and 
 rushed out. No sooner was he gone than she re- 
 lapsed to weeping, stricken by the curse of utter 
 helplessness which underlay her pitiful pretence at 
 pride. To have been beaten black and blue by 
 Yusuf would have been less ignominious than to 
 let the Consul know she was unhappy. She had 
 walked into this guarded life with open eyes, aware 
 of the conditions which must thenceforth fetter 
 her existence, boasting love for them. The least 
 complaint, much more retreat, was thus impossible. 
 Even in the heat of anger she had had no real in- 
 tention to go back. Yusuf had enraged her, the 
 mob upon the previous day had frightened her 
 exceedingly ; but after all they were her chosen peo- 
 ple, though so strange. She could never come to 
 hate them as she did the English. 
 
 She rose at last with mind to go into another room. 
 The door was locked. Upon her trying it a slave- 
 girl shouted: 
 
 " It is forbidden to go out. Does my lady re- 
 quire anything that I can bring her? " 
 
 Barakah bit her lip and flushed as she turned back. 
 Remembrance of her boasting yesterday before those 
 Englishwomen rose to taunt her. 
 
 A little sunlight entered through the lattice like 
 gold-dust. The gardener was at his work of water- 
 ing a lengthy process assisted by his little son 
 and by Ghandur, Fatumah playing round and teas- 
 ing them. She heard their shouts and the familiar
 
 VEILED WOMEN 99 
 
 noises marking stages of the work; and by degrees, 
 as she sat idle, listening, a measure of contentment 
 came to her. Her troubles were of her own making; 
 she had tempted Providence by flouting rules she had 
 herself accepted. Henceforth, she vowed, she would 
 be passive, of a boldness purely speculative, like 
 Gulbeyzah. 
 
 It was not very long before the room door opened, 
 admitting Yusuf and his father, both with faces of 
 concern. Saluting, in his courtly way, the Pasha 
 offered an unqualified apology for everything that 
 might displease her in the customs of the country. 
 His son had told him of the trouble which had come 
 between them. It arose from a simple and entirely 
 pardonable misunderstanding, as he hoped at once 
 to demonstrate to her well-known intelligence, if she 
 would pay him the distinguished compliment of at- 
 tending for a little moment to 'his explanation. 
 
 With that, he crossed one leg beneath him on the 
 sofa, a compromise between the Eastern and the 
 Western attitude, and began: 
 
 " I told you, if you will have the goodness to re- 
 member, when first the question of a marriage with 
 my son arose between us, that we had stricter rules 
 for the protection of our women than prevail in 
 Europe. I also told you that, those rules once 
 honoured, a woman had all freedom and con- 
 sideration. I did wrong, I now perceive with infinite 
 regret, not to explain to you precisely the reason and 
 the nature of those rules; for, see, entirely owing to
 
 100 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 that fault of mine, you have transgressed them inno- 
 cently. I should like, if you permit it, to expound 
 their general tendency and benevolent intention." 
 
 Barakah was sore abashed. The Pasha's en- 
 trance, the intervention of so dignified a person in 
 a childish quarrel due to her misconduct, over- 
 whelmed her. At this point in his speech she inter- 
 jected: 
 
 " Pardon ! I did wrong, I know ! But I had 
 no idea ... I wore the habbarah and mouth-veil. 
 You had told me that a woman dressed like that 
 was safe from insult." 
 
 " I spoke in too general a sense. It is my fault 
 entirely. You sinned through ignorance, and 
 Yusuf should not have been angry though, in- 
 deed, to our ideas your conduct was abominable." 
 
 " But what wrong did I do, beyond going out 
 without permission? Why did the people on the 
 road beset me ? Oh, I am so miserable ! " 
 
 The Pasha shrugged his shoulders with a smile 
 to Yusuf, as who should say: 
 
 " Observe her innocence ! " 
 
 " No, no, don't cry, I beg of you ! " he pleaded. 
 " God be praised you have derived no hurt from 
 the adventure. It is entirely owing to respect for 
 you that I and my son are so concerned about it. 
 Beloved daughter, women are for us so sacred the 
 spirit of the house, the secret fount of life that we 
 never even speak of them with friends for fear some 
 light word of unseemly thought should go towards
 
 VEILED WOMEN 101 
 
 them. Nothing must be known of them, no talk 
 made about them, outside the world of women and 
 our own harim. 
 
 " Yesterday, by going out alone in an open car- 
 riage, you attracted notice all unconsciously. Your 
 habbarah is of a rich material, your mouth-veil of 
 the kind only worn by ladies of good houses. No 
 such lady would have gone abroad thus unattended. 
 The servants of your English friend would comment 
 on the strange proceeding, and, knowing who you 
 were, think shame of us. 
 
 " But that is the least part of what you did. 
 That, by itself, would have been nothing. But you 
 walked. Great God! What made you walk? That 
 is for me inexplicable ! " 
 
 " I felt the wish to walk. It was a lovely even- 
 ing." 
 
 " Great God ! " the Pasha gasped, with eyes up- 
 turned. " Does anybody walk for pleasure here in 
 Egypt? The natives have a proverb: 'Better 
 ride on beetles than walk upon rich carpets.' Well, 
 well, there ! " He shrugged as giving up a hope- 
 less puzzle. " You walked. A lady dressed as you 
 were had never been seen walking in this world be- 
 fore. More than that, you did not walk like other 
 people. Ghandur informs me that the rascals who 
 beset you were all persuaded that you were a man 
 dressed up. You say you walked for pleasure in 
 the dust ? and in a habbarah ? Astonishing ! 
 
 " So, you see now. Yusuf was not angry alto-
 
 102 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 gether without cause. I trust you will not now 
 esteem it necessary to see the Consul, and produce 
 a scandal which I think would kill me." 
 
 Thoroughly disgusted with her whole behaviour, 
 Barakah began to sob again. 
 
 " I never truly meant to go," she blurted. 
 
 " I thank you infinitely," said the Pasha grandly, 
 again saluting as he rose to go. " You relieve me of 
 a terrible anxiety. Our house has never known 
 the breath of scandal. . . . But pleasure! you 
 assure me that you walked for pleasure ? " he 
 gasped, reverting to the former wonder. " I could 
 understand it in a garden, round and round. But 
 when it is a case of going anywhere Grand 
 Dieu!" 
 
 That was a marvel which for weeks convulsed the 
 harim world. The Pasha mentioned it at home. 
 Within an hour the wondrous news was known to 
 every woman. The English bride of Yusuf Bey 
 Muhammad had walked from such a house to such 
 a crossways, all in thick dust, amid the crowd of 
 wayfarers for pleasure, so she said ! Insanity, 
 a love appointment with an Englishman, a touch of 
 sunstroke, the insensibility to comfort of a woman 
 of coarse origin, were solutions of the riddle freely 
 offered and discussed. But the theory which found 
 most favour for its probability was that the English- 
 woman was the sport of some malignant wizard or 
 afrit, who made her walk to show his power upon 
 her.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 103 
 
 Leylah Khanum and Gulbeyzah were the first to 
 call and question her upon the strange performance. 
 They asked her point-blank why she had walked; 
 and when she answered, " Just for exercise," they 
 eyed her in a way that showed they thought her 
 mad. Then came the throng of mere acquaintances, 
 not less curious, but infinitely too polite to ask a 
 question; who watched for symptoms of derange- 
 ment through the flow of compliments. The elderly 
 princess, Aminah Khanum, alone showed understand- 
 ing and some sympathy. 
 
 " My dear," she said, " you've set the parrots 
 talking. Do you know that * durrah,' which means 
 fellow-wife, means parrot too? Bear that in mind. 
 Their tongues ! They fail to comprehend. They 
 think you are bewitched or mad. For me, your 
 conduct was entirely natural. But I fancy you will 
 give up walking here in Egypt. Were not your 
 clothes a mass of dust beneath your habbarah? 
 Whenever you are in a difficulty, come to me. I 
 have some jurisdiction, and I wish you happy." 
 
 Barakah was far from happy in those days. For 
 one thing, she had felt the bars confining her. And 
 then a vision of the English sneering lurked ever in 
 the background of her mind, a fount of gall. With 
 Yusuf she was once more upon loving terms, and any 
 differences that arose between them came from her 
 ill-temper. She was growing irritable. The food, 
 too highly spiced, did not agree with her; the sani- 
 tary arrangements were disgusting; she noticed fail-
 
 104 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 ings not observed before, particularly in the be- 
 haviour of the servants to her. 
 
 At first, on coming to that nest of love, released 
 from the restrictions of a great harim, her slave- 
 girls had been lazy, but obsequious. At that time 
 the old woman had commanded them, relieving Bar- 
 akah, whose little knowledge of the language would 
 have placed her at their mercy. But now the crone 
 had been dismissed; the servants, with respect di- 
 minished by the quarrel they had witnessed, were 
 grown insolent and off-hand in their service. The 
 child Fatumah, who had been a pet with Barakah, 
 made rude grimaces and ran off when called. 
 
 One hot midday, feeling extremely ill, she called 
 for water. There came no answer, though she heard 
 them chattering. She called again and clapped her 
 hands. Still no one came. The cruelty of such 
 neglect incensed her. With fevered strength she 
 rose and went to scold them. She met a slave ar- 
 riving at her leisure. At the words, " Ready, O my 
 lady ! " proffered with an undisguised yawn, she 
 sprang upon the girl and clutched her throat, ex- 
 claiming: " Bring water, dost thou hear, O daugh- 
 ter of a dog ! Bring water quickly ! " 
 
 The slave, beholding murder in the lady's eyes, 
 made haste and ran. Another girl looked in to learn 
 the reason of the noise. Barakah picked up an 
 earthen jar and flung it at her head. The change 
 was magical. In a trice five several vessels full of 
 water were being offered to her by as many servile
 
 VEILED WOMEN 105 
 
 creatures ; while Fatumah snuggled up to her and 
 kissed her hand, receiving in return a box on the 
 ear, which made her howl the praises of her dear, 
 kind mistress. 
 
 When Barakah returned to her own room she 
 fainted, her borrowed strength departing with her 
 wrath. The servants, in a flutter of solicitude, put 
 her to bed, and sent Ghandur to fetch the master. 
 She, knowing nothing of the flight of time, heard 
 presently, as in a dream, the Pasha saying: 
 
 " Call a European doctor 1 That dog must know 
 that she has had the best attendance ! " and Yusuf 
 weeping uncontrollably. Then the next minute, as 
 it seemed to her, an English voice above her mut- 
 tered : " Typhoid ! Bound to come, with native 
 food." That was the last she knew.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 GHANDUR had borne the summons to the Frankish 
 doctor. Having delivered it, he wandered to the 
 Pasha's house. A creature witless save for love, ex- 
 isting by it, the kindness shown him by the lady 
 Barakah had raised her to the throne of Yusuf in 
 his mind. Her freak of walking had imparted to his 
 sentiments that touch of pity for one too innocent 
 to face the world which makes of service an angelic 
 trust. He blamed himself for the adventure. When 
 he heard that she was in disgrace and looking wan, 
 he beat his breast. Now that she was like to die 
 through his demerits, his grief was such as caused 
 him actual pains. 
 
 Upon arriving at Muhammad Pasha's house, be- 
 fore he could divulge his woe, he was informed: 
 
 " The lady Fitnah has been asking for thee. Go 
 indoors, and wait while they announce thee ! " 
 
 He was standing in the hall, cocooned in sorrow, 
 when a mob of children burst through the mabeyn, 
 as the great screen which bounds the women's realm 
 is called, and fell upon him. 
 
 " Oh, Ghandur, where hast thou been ? " " I have 
 a new tarbush." " The bitch beneath our windows 
 has five puppies blind, by Allah's mercy ! Come 
 
 106
 
 VEILED WOMEN 107 
 
 and see ! " " My doll ! Like a daughter of Adam 
 a bride arrayed a virgin almost a sin for 
 thee to look on ! Come and see ! " 
 
 Half weeping as he was, Ghandur responded ; and, 
 unaware of his preoccupation, the children led him 
 towards the women's doorway. 
 
 " Go in as far as to the second screen no far- 
 ther ! " said the eunuch there on guard. 
 
 Ghandur was careful to obey ; but his attendant 
 imps, regarding all authority as ground for sport, 
 banded together suddenly and dragged him on. He 
 shook them off and drew back quickly ; the eunuch 
 came and scattered them with swishing cane; and 
 then the children, tumbling over one another, began 
 to fight among themselves with fearful insults. 
 
 " By my maidenhood, I swear to kill thee and de- 
 vour thy liver ! " screamed out a girl of eight to a 
 small boy who pushed against her. 
 
 " I will ravish thee, abandoned one, and then eject 
 thee on a dunghill ! " 
 
 The lady Fitnah from behind the screen cried out 
 for order, naming Hamdi, her own son, as probably 
 the cause of tumult. The eunuch fell upon that way- 
 ward, dreamy adolescent, whom Ghandur did his ut- 
 most to protect, for he was YusuPs brother; while 
 Fitnah Khanum asked what sin she had committed 
 to be punished with a boy so lazy and so mischievous. 
 She cared for Hamdi, but without indulgence. Her 
 love was made a whip-lash for his good. At last 
 came silence, and Ghandur poured forth his grief.
 
 108 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " O Lord, have mercy ! Woe upon us all ! O 
 most gracious lady, rare pearl of beauty and re- 
 finement, companion of my dearest lord and brother! 
 Behold the glory of our house is in the dust." 
 
 "By Allah, in the dust! Thou sayest truly!" 
 scoffed the lady Fitnah. " It is of that very busi- 
 ness that I wish to speak with thee. What is the 
 truth about her walking in the dust, thou who wast 
 with her? Is it true that she had been alone with 
 Frankish men ? Was no man following didst thou 
 look well? when she walked off alone, rejecting 
 thee? Was not her chin upon her shoulder, and her 
 gaze behind her, ogling? Did I not well to rail 
 against that marriage? Now it is clearly proven 
 that she has no modesty." 
 
 " O my despair ! O evil day ! The fault is 
 mine ! " cried out Ghandur, beside himself. " Blame 
 not her Grace ; she is the noblest lady as innocent 
 as is a babe; she thinks no evil. O bitter grief! 
 
 Allah ! O calamity ! " 
 
 " Now Allah heal thee ! It is plain she has be- 
 witched thee too. She is for all men, like the rest 
 of her foul race for strangers, servants, donkey- 
 drivers, even scavengers! Pray, pray to God till 
 
 1 bestow on thee a charm of power ! " 
 
 " Hush ! Let him speak ! Let Ghandur tell his 
 story ! " cried a second voice. Ghandur became 
 aware of other ladies pressing to the screen. He 
 lifted up his voice and wept. 
 
 " O lady, speak no bitterness against her. She
 
 VEILED WOMEN 109 
 
 lies this moment at the point of death. Our house 
 is as a tomb, a haunt of ominous owls. My lord the 
 Pasha frowns and looks distressful; my lord Yiisuf 
 weeps as if his heart would break, t myself have 
 been to call a Frankish doctor, who, on reading my 
 lord's message, rode off like the wind. Allah knows 
 the dear one may be dead this minute ! " 
 
 He buried his face in his hands, while a hubbub 
 of concern arose behind the screen. 
 
 " O poor darling floweret ! O despair ! " wailed 
 Yusuf's mother, all her feelings turned right round. 
 " What is her illness ? Quick, describe ! May Al- 
 lah heal her ! " 
 
 " Fever the worst sort ! " 
 
 " I go at once to her." 
 
 A sick-nurse of experience in charms and nos- 
 trums, the lady Fitnah always quickened to the scent 
 of illness and adored the sufferer. From a creature 
 hardly to be named by modest lips, the wife of Yiisuf 
 was become the apple of her eye. Having sent an 
 order for the carriage, she went through her store of 
 medicines, discoursing wisely to the other ladies; 
 while Ghandur, retiring, heard from the attendant 
 eunuch : 
 
 " Thou hast done it ! We had word of this ; Saw- 
 wab was summoned. But the command was, not to 
 tell the ladies." 
 
 He could only shrug. 
 
 Illness, like death and birth, was woman's great 
 occasion, when, guarding the traditions, she stood
 
 110 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 forth as priestess. The whole harim was in a flutter 
 of excitement. 
 
 " Gulbeyzah must come with us," pronounced Fit- 
 nah Khanum, " because our poor sick darling al- 
 ways loved her." 
 
 The ladies Fitnah and Murjanah, the Pasha's 
 widowed sister and two nieces, goodly persons, to- 
 gether with the well-grown, plump Gulbeyzah, and 
 a bundle of medicaments, including a whole plant 
 of garlic and a donkey's thigh-bone, were all packed 
 somehow into one close carriage. The sun was set- 
 ting when they reached the pleasure-house. The 
 eunuch went to herald their arrival ; and all the ladies, 
 nothing doubting of their glad reception, freed them- 
 selves from the crushed mass they formed together. 
 They were shaking out and smoothing crumpled rai- 
 ment when the messenger returned to say they were 
 refused admittance by the doctor's orders. The 
 ladies stood stone-still and looked at one another. 
 Fitnah Khanum broke the silence. 
 
 " This is our son's house ! May Allah slay the 
 doctor ! Come, my sisters ! " 
 
 Just then Sawwab, chief eunuch of the guard, ap- 
 peared, and barred the entrance with the word " For- 
 bidden ! " 
 
 " Whose order, say ? " 
 
 " The order of our lord." 
 
 " Praise to Allah ! That is better than the doc- 
 tor. To hear is to obey, though Allah knows that
 
 VEILED WOMEN 111 
 
 the command is wicked and against religion. Tell 
 thy master we shall lay a case before the Cadi." 
 
 With this menace, which afforded her some satis- 
 faction, Fitnah Khanum turned back towards the car- 
 riage; and the work of packing those redundant 
 bodies was performed anew. 
 
 "Heard one ever the like? To hide our dearest 
 from us at the point of death! To keep a mother 
 from a daughter's sick-bed a woman from a 
 woman ! O Protector ! " 
 
 The incident, when known, incensed the harim 
 world. The sick-room had been woman's temple 
 from of old. To be forbidden access to the bedside 
 of a near relation appeared an outrage, even to the 
 calm Murjanah. The indignation of the slaves was 
 riotous. The injured ladies received many visits of 
 condolence, when Fitnah Khanum's lamentations were 
 applauded as the voice of right. 
 
 " O cruelty," she sobbed. " To keep us from our 
 darling, when she has most need of us ! The Frank- 
 ish doctors are all monsters, hearts of stone. It is 
 known that they snatch dying people from their 
 friends, to practise on them, omitting even to return 
 the bodies afterwards. They may have skill, but 
 many things they know not, being infidels. The pain 
 I suffer when I think of that sweet girl the very 
 liver of my darling Yusuf lying senseless, an 
 emptv house for any demon to inhabit, and not a 
 charm put up for her protection, is excruciating!"
 
 112 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 It is characteristic of the harim life, that, though 
 the ladies were thus irritated, near rebellion, no clear 
 word of their grievance reached the Pasha's ear. 
 There is a wall between the woman and the man more 
 real than the mabeyn screen which man erects. The 
 women raise it to secure their privileges; the man, if 
 he perceives it, cannot throw it down. His anger 
 meets with a subservience which foils its aim as surely 
 as loose sheets will stop a bullet. Even Murjanah, 
 who adored the Pasha, kept the harim secret. 
 
 Fitnah Khanum had foretold that Barakah would 
 die, thanks to the ministrations of the Frankish doc- 
 tor. When she heard that she was fast recovering, 
 she gave praise to Allah, who had saved her life in 
 spite of them. From wishing well to the sick woman, 
 she had grown to love her with all the strength of her 
 impulsive, loyal nature. 
 
 The love she bore to Yusuf was eclipsed. His 
 neglect of her for weeks was scarcely noticed. 
 When at last he did appear, haggard but joyful, her 
 " Praise to Allah " was upon his wife's account. 
 She made him tell her every detail of the doctor's 
 treatment, and vowed it was a miracle the girl sur- 
 vived it. From him she learnt the reason of the 
 Pasha's deference to every edict of that ignoramus. 
 The English Consul had his eye upon the house, 
 watching to note that all was done correctly. 
 
 " Consume the Consul ! " she exclaimed peremp- 
 torily.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 113 
 
 " Our Lord consume him utterly ! " said Yusuf . 
 " Yet for one boon I have to thank him. My father, 
 to propitiate him, gives command that I shall visit 
 Paris in the summer with my bride." 
 
 " Allah forbid ! " his mother screamed in horror. 
 " Our pearl of pearls to be exposed to vulgar han- 
 dling, to be cast back into the mire from which she 
 was with pains extracted! Thou wilt not suffer her 
 to go unveiled? For shame, O Yusuf! To let foul 
 infidels survey thy secret joy." 
 
 " Nay, she will veil her face as the Frenchwomen 
 use." 
 
 " Those veils are nothing, for the mouth is visible." 
 
 " Our ladies wear them in that country to avoid 
 publicity. Be reassured, my mother; we shall guard 
 the decencies. My father grumbles greatly at the 
 cost, but vows that he will show the Consul we are 
 not fanatical. We go to see the dog to-morrow, to 
 tell him all that we have done for her." 
 
 But on the morrow Yusuf and his father met with 
 cruel disconcertion. The Consul welcomed them and 
 listened to their story with politeness, but at its end 
 he murmured blandly: 
 
 " I altogether fail to see how this concerns me, 
 though highly honored by your visit and your con- 
 fidence. The lady is, no doubt, extremely fortu- 
 nate." 
 
 Muhammad Pasha, flushing hotly, licked his lips 
 as might a panther, and glanced sidelong at his son. 
 He offered a profusion of excuses as he rose to go.
 
 114 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 The Consul answered, " Always charmed ! " and 
 smiled them out. 
 
 " May the All-Powerful corrupt his bones and 
 blind him! May the All-Merciful frustrate his 
 heart's desire ! " exclaimed the Pasha as the two re- 
 gained their carriage. " It seems he has deceived 
 us, has renounced all claim. Here have I spent more 
 than I can afford coined money, hard to come by 
 what with her establishment, this doctor and the 
 nursing, and that trip to Paris, which cannot now be 
 dropped, for I have boasted of it; and lo! the dog 
 cares nothing for my trouble. May his limbs rot 
 off!" 
 
 " May Allah cut his life ! " said Yusuf savagely. 
 
 The women never heard that tale of shame.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 WITH the return of reason a new spirit came to 
 Barakah. At the moment of her seizure she had 
 been exasperated with her Eastern life. She awoke 
 to rapture in it, to impatience of the European nurse 
 and doctor. The smell of them, as they leaned over 
 her, was an offence; their voices jarred so that often 
 she would hide her head beneath the bed-clothes to 
 shut out the sound. 
 
 On the other hand, she listened eagerly to noises 
 out of doors the creak of the shaduf which tipped 
 up water on the garden, the camel-bells, the chant 
 of passing funerals; she watched the sunlight stud 
 with gems the inky lacework of her lattice, and 
 eagerly inhaled the breeze which entered; and 
 Yusuf's daily visits were her joy. In the forest of 
 distorted memories through which her soul had wan- 
 dered friendless like a ragged child, the Europeans 
 she encountered had reviled her; the love of Yusuf 
 and his people had been all her hope. 
 
 In the hunger which distressed her convalescence, 
 the growing disaffection for a diet all of milk, her 
 fancy pictured feasts of Eastern dishes, English 
 cookery appearing loathsome in the memory. 
 Strangest of all, she could now think in Arabic, of 
 
 115
 
 116 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 which, before her illness, she had scarce a sentence. 
 
 As soon as she had licence to see visitors, the 
 Pasha's harim came in force to greet her. The lady 
 Fitnah fell upon her in a transport of affection, and 
 she responded with entire abandonment, thankful to 
 have at last the love of Yusuf's mother. The elderly 
 princess, Aminah Khanum, and other ladies of im- 
 portance, paid her visits and, as her health improved, 
 carried her off to their own houses not for an 
 hour, but for whole days together. There, in the 
 perfumed shade, she was enthroned with cushions, 
 fanned and sprinkled, nourished delicately, and sung 
 to sleep when she showed signs of weariness. The 
 sense of frailty and of worth was exquisite. She was 
 content to be the guarded pet, and let them plan ; re- 
 garding them as beings of a higher race, with whom 
 it would be vanity to try to cope. Their freedom 
 frdm the sentimental mists of Europe helped this 
 feeling, and so did their bold vision of existence, 
 blinking nothing. The potential cruelty which 
 lurked beneath their gentleness subdued her; the way 
 they talked of death habitually made her feel a 
 timid child. 
 
 Thus, with the body pampered and the mind en- 
 slaved, she studied and observed their life, completely 
 fascinated. The world of women was, she found, a 
 great republic, with liberties extending to the mean- 
 est slave, and something of the strength which comes 
 of solidarity. Unless in jealous fury, no woman 
 would inform against another, bond or free; nor fail
 
 VEILED WOMEN 117 
 
 to help her in the hour of need. They had their 
 shibboleths, their customs, rites, and ceremonies, 
 even their courts of justice, independent of the world 
 of men. Each lady owning slaves controlled them 
 absolutely. Her husband never saw their faces, 
 hardly knew them. The law against his making love 
 among them, except by her command, was very dras- 
 tic. The child of such a union would have been her 
 slave. If he required a concubine, he had to buy, 
 not steal one. So sacred with the Muslims was the 
 married woman's right to property a right which 
 was not recognised at all in England. Occasionally 
 Barakah heard talk of cruelties which chilled her 
 blood ; but her friends excused them on the ground of 
 anger, which was for them a visitation from on high. 
 The very victims, they assured her, never felt as she 
 did. 
 
 One feature of the harim life which shocked her 
 was the equalling of black with white. The Muslim 
 faith disowning all race prejudice, a strain of negro 
 blood appeared in the best families ; and any negro 
 having fortune was esteemed as marriageable as the 
 fairest Turk. Then the black slaves, though less 
 regarded because they cost less than the white Cir- 
 cassians, possessed great influence, particularly in 
 the article of superstition, which they quite con- 
 trolled. Weeds from the heathen Soudan, brought 
 to Cairo in the convoy of the slave-dealer, luxuriated 
 in that tank of guarded ignorance ; and many an en- 
 lightened Muslim would have died of horror had he
 
 118 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 known the works of darkness countenanced by his 
 harim the sacrifices to malignant beings ; the ven- 
 eration paid to hoary negresses for demoniacal pos- 
 session ; the use to which the name of God was some- 
 times put. To Barakah, however, in those early 
 days, such fancies what she heard of them 
 seemed merely comic. She ranked them with the 
 women's playfulness, their funny stories. She was 
 enamoured of their life as she conceived it, enslaved 
 and thrilled by its unblushing candor. This was the 
 season of her real conversion, which reached its cli- 
 max on a certain morning, when she was carried in a 
 guarded litter to the citadel to witness the departure 
 of the yearly pilgrimage. From a place reserved 
 for ladies on the ramparts she beheld the troops, the 
 guilds of dervishes, defile before the Khedive's tent, 
 and then the great procession wind away. Fanfares 
 sounded, cannons roared, and from the multitude 
 which hid the square and covered every roof and bal- 
 cony in sight, beading with heads the very summits 
 of the citadel, a sigh went up. 
 
 Barakah was in an ecstasy. When her eyes 
 wearied of the flash and movement, she surveyed the 
 vast blue sky, the coloured, sun-lit walls, the minarets 
 where doves were circling. She pictured the long 
 journey of the pilgrims, on the shining sea, across 
 the burning sands, to the eternal sanctuary. What 
 scene in Christian Europe could be matched with 
 this? Religion, but a mummy there, here Uvetf and
 
 VEILED WOMEN 119 
 
 Returning home, she felt a craving to unbosom, 
 and bethought her of a girl in England, once her 
 friend. She called for ink and pens, and wrote 
 forthwith to Julia Long, recounting her changed 
 fortunes, and extolling Egypt. She described the 
 scene she had that morning witnessed, and concluded : 
 
 " Julia darling, you will think it strange, but I 
 am sure that this religion is the true one. Here 
 every woman has a chance to marry, and the acci- 
 dents of wealth and birth are not the barriers they 
 are at home. Polygamy is not at all what people 
 think. The Moslems are as strict as Puritans about 
 morality ; and the women here are happier than those 
 at home. Europe has gone all wrong, and so has 
 Christianity. Here we believe in Jesus just as you 
 do : we know that His religion is the true one ; but 
 St. Paul and others after him corrupted it. Do 
 think of this, and learn about Mahometanism. I 
 would give anything that you might find the happi- 
 ness that I have found. My husband will be tak- 
 ing me to Paris at the end of June. Do try and join 
 us there. We will pay all expenses. 
 
 " With true affection from your old friend 
 
 {Madame Yousouf Bey Mohamed, 
 c/o Mohamed Pasha Salih, 
 Cairo, Egypt." 
 
 This letter was read out to Yusuf in the evening. 
 He applauded it, and vowed she had a natural gift 
 of eloquence. He asked for a minute description of
 
 120 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 her friend, seeming much pleased to think that they 
 would meet in Paris ; and when Barakah had satisfied 
 him to the best of her remembrance, chuckled: 
 
 " And you love her? Then you would not object 
 to have her for your durrah ! " 
 
 She warned him archly that she could be jealous. 
 
 Barakah called often on the lady Fitnah, who just 
 now was in high feather, having been commissioned 
 by Murjanah Khanum to find out a husband for the 
 latter's slave, Gulbeyzah. At once she sent out go- 
 betweens in all directions, threads of a gigantic web, 
 in which she sat and waited. Flies soon came 
 ladies with eligible sons or husbands needing matri- 
 mony whose claims the shrewd Egyptian sifted, 
 smelling out the slightest fraud. Barakah was in- 
 terested in these doings, naturally, seeing they con- 
 cerned the welfare of her closest friend. 
 
 Murjanah Khanum wished to emancipate a charm- 
 ing slave and place her in a good position, at the 
 same time seeking some remuneration for her previ- 
 ous outlay. She appointed Fitnah Khanum her in- 
 tendant. Those were the naked facts. But the 
 word " price " was never mentioned in discussion of 
 the subject; it was always " dowry," of which a third 
 part would be paid, of course, to the bride's people. 
 Gulbeyzah was referred to as a cherished daughter 
 of the house; her wishes were consulted with regard 
 to each proposal; and no one was annoyed when she 
 seemed hard to please. 
 
 " Thou art like Leylah Khanum," whispered
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Barakah. " Thou wilt choose and choose away till 
 none are left." 
 
 " By no means," was the laughing answer. " I 
 am a young maid. Moreover, it is not the man I 
 stickle for; it is society." 
 
 Whenever ladies whom she did not choose came to 
 inspect her, Gulbeyzah donned a rustic air and talked 
 to shock them. Barakah had no idea of what she 
 meant when saying she required society, until one 
 day she told her: 
 
 "Praise to Allah! Only think, beloved! Three 
 Circassians, young like me, from the same district! 
 Their lord a Pasha of the richest wants an- 
 other like them. They are gratified.' I have been 
 recommended. They come to-day for my inspection. 
 Thou shalt see them presently, as also a Gulbeyzah 
 no one ever saw before. O day of milk! O wave- 
 crest of all days ! " 
 
 Barakah had been summoned by the ladies and 
 a carriage sent for her. Gulbeyzah had waylaid her 
 on the way to the reception-room. 
 
 "But what of the man the husband?" she in- 
 quired. 
 
 " Splendid ! Rich and generous ; impartial as the 
 prophet in division of his favours. If God wills, I 
 shall bear him children. What more could girl re- 
 quire ? Think four of us, like sisters ! Four 
 pearls strung together, and inseparable! Thou wilt 
 visit us, and we shall all four love thee dearly. O 
 joy! Now go! I will rejoin thee presently."
 
 122 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 The clack of tongues was heard from the recep- 
 tion-room. Before the door stood rows of coloured 
 slippers. All the dependants of the household, all 
 the go-betweens, had rallied to support the ladies on 
 a great occasion. Hardly had Barakah concluded 
 greetings ere the three Circassians were announced. 
 They were all charming, and all bore, she fancied, 
 some resemblance to Gulbeyzah in their child-like 
 faces and huge eyes. They had pretty, deferential 
 manners, seeming to speak by pre-arrangement and 
 to think in concert, obedient to some rule which 
 bound them, just like nuns. They were still amid 
 the storm of formal compliments when Gulbeyzah 
 entered clad in soft apparel, and paused as if in awe 
 at finding strangers. Then, blushingly, she went and 
 kissed their hands, going on to kiss the hands of 
 all the ladies present. In so doing she gave Barakah 
 a little bite, and when her tour was ended sank down 
 humbly at her feet. 
 
 " They will unmask thee. Thou canst never keep 
 this up for life," the Englishwoman whispered. 
 
 " By Allah ! only look ! " was the reply. " They 
 too are acting. See now, the plump one: there is 
 inward mirth." 
 
 The visitors, impressed by her demeanour, put 
 certain questions, which she answered to the point. 
 It appeared that she could dance and sing; spoke 
 Turkish, Arabic, and some Armenian. At mention 
 of French also, they raised hands and eyes, declaring 
 her a perfect prodigy. They then addressed her in
 
 VEILED WOMEN 123 
 
 their native dialect, when sudden smiles broke up 
 their shy decorum. Turning to the hostesses, they 
 asked forgiveness for employing private speech. 
 They had but asked the dear one of her native vil- 
 lage, and smiled to hear that it adjoined their own. 
 They begged for leave to call again, which meant the 
 bargain was acceptable; and then withdrew with 
 every blessing on the house. 
 
 No sooner had they vanished than Gulbeyzah 
 threw off her demureness and performed with energy 
 a naughty dance which terminated in a sudden swoop 
 to clasp Murjanah Khanum's feet. Her mistress 
 bent and kissed her forehead tenderly ; the lady Fit- 
 nah was convulsed with glee; the humbler women 
 gave forth wedding-cries. And the cause of all this 
 joy, the object of that motherly consideration, was 
 a slave! In Europe, people thought of slaves as 
 miserable. Here was a story to be told to Julia 
 Long. 
 
 " O disappointment ! Thou wilt be in Paris ! 
 Thou wilt miss my wedding ! " cried Gulbeyzah sud- 
 denly. " Yusuf Bey should take some low girl with 
 him since he needs must go. It is sinful to expose 
 thy worth to risks of travel." 
 
 "Have I not told him?" cried the lady Fitnah. 
 " The world will be quite black when she is gone. A 
 girl for whom his father paid three thousand pounds. 
 It is absurd to fling her into boats and filthy trains." 
 
 Barakah smiled at their desire to keep her, think- 
 ing with rapture of the coming talks with Julia.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 She had not then had Julia's answer to her letter. 
 It arrived within a fortnight of the time of starting. 
 
 ". . . How can you write such wickedness? . . . 
 I heard that you had married a Turk, but thought 
 of course he was converted. ... I do not envy 
 you your riches nor your rank at such a price ! . . . 
 No, I will not join you in Paris, and abet you in your 
 infamy. I banish your most impious suggestions 
 from my thoughts for ever. ... I am poor and shall 
 remain so; but I have incalculable treasure. . . ." 
 
 She crumpled up the closely written sheets, then 
 flung them on the ground and stamped upon them. 
 Yusuf found her weeping uncontrollably, and asked 
 the cause. 
 
 " Then their women are fanatical like ours ! " he 
 sighed when told. " Take heart, O fountain of my 
 life! By Allah, such a friend is not worth weeping. 
 We will none the less enjoy ourselves in Paris." 
 
 " I have no wish to go at all," sobbed Barakah.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 GHANDUR attended, Yusuf in the train to Alexandria, 
 and accompanied the pair on board the steamer. 
 Kissing hands at parting he wept uncontrollably, 
 and in that condition was propelled by sailors to the 
 boat awaiting him. Barakah would have liked to 
 stand and watch the harbour, which offered charm- 
 ing pictures in the evening glow ; but Yusuf drew her 
 down into a stuffy cabin, where he left her, bidding 
 her secure the door against intrusion. He told her 
 she must take her meals down there, since there was 
 no separate dining-room assigned to women. Di- 
 rectly afterwards his voice resounded in the corridor, 
 with others talking Arabic, by which she knew that 
 he had friends on board. 
 
 A stewardess knocked at her door, bringing her 
 supper, which consisted of a single dish of meat and 
 vegetables. By then the pulse of engines could be 
 felt; there was a noise of running overhead, shouts, 
 and the clank of chains ; the ship was moving. Hav- 
 ing made an end of eating, she retired to bed and, 
 being tired, went to sleep immediately. The slam- 
 ming of the door by Yusuf partly roused her. She 
 could hear him swearing, asking Allah to be put on 
 shore, and knew that he was sea-sick; but it seemed 
 
 125
 
 126 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 no matter. Next morning, as the sea was rather 
 rough, she kept her bunk until eleven o'clock, when 
 she got up and put on English clothes she had 
 brought with her. Yusuf, more dead than living, 
 asked what for. 
 
 " I go to smell the air." 
 
 He sobbed : " With face exposed ! Behold me 
 dead, while dogs defile my grave." 
 
 Supposing his mind wandered for she wore the 
 English veil which he himself had said would be 
 sufficient after leaving Egypt she found her way 
 on to the deck and spent an hour there, pacing up 
 and down, enjoying the strong wind. When she re- 
 turned to Yusuf he was inarticulate. She stayed 
 with him until the evening, when she went on deck 
 again for a few minutes before turning in. It was 
 five days before the gale abated. 
 
 At length one morning they awoke to ease of 
 movement, and Yusuf rose. His smile was tentative 
 at first, but soon grew confident. " I could not tell 
 thee for my sickness," he informed her, " but there 
 are common people of our faith on board. I would 
 not have their talk asperse my wife. It mattered 
 less while I myself made no appearance. No doubt 
 they took thee for some Frankish woman. But now 
 keep close in here. Wait till we get to Fransa." 
 
 Without waiting for her answer, he went out. 
 But in a minute he was back again, exclaiming: 
 
 " The wife of Hafiz Bey, my friend, lies near to 
 death! Come thou and see what can be done for her,
 
 VEILED WOMEN 127 
 
 and God reward thee! Put on thy habbarah. My 
 friend will guide thee." 
 
 It was the first time he had spoken of his friends 
 to her. She followed him and was presented to a 
 fat, good-tempered-looking youth, exceeding swarthy, 
 clad in a European suit too tight for him, who apol- 
 ogized in baby French for thus " deranging " her. 
 He opened the door of an adjacent cabin, bowed her 
 in, and then retreated arm in arm with Yusuf. 
 
 It was a two-berth cabin. In the lower bunk a 
 buxom girl of eighteen years or less a perfect 
 blonde lay with her eyes closed, making moan 
 with every breath. The childish face was flushed, 
 discoloured round the eyes with weeping; the hands 
 clenched. Whatever her complaint, it was not sea- 
 sickness. 
 
 " How is thy health ? " the visitor asked softly. 
 
 "O Lord! I die! I perish! O fresh air! O 
 sun ! " gasped out the sufferer. " O Allah ! Was I 
 born a fish to be thus thrown upon the sea a snake, 
 to be imprisoned in this box? " 
 
 " Be brave ! The voyage is now almost ended. 
 In two days or three, at most, we are released. Tell 
 me thy pains ! What ails thee ? " 
 
 The prostrate beauty opened great blue eyes of 
 injured innocence and asked: "Who art thou?" 
 
 " I am the wife of Yusuf Bey, thy husband's 
 friend." 
 
 " The Englishwoman ! " She sat up and clung to 
 Barakah. " How canst thou bear it, thou, an hon-
 
 128 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 cured wife! Will not thy parents take account for 
 the indignity? Oh, end my life, I pray thee; it is 
 unendurable ! " 
 
 Slowly, by force of patience, Barakah elicited 
 that the girl, by name Bedr-ul-Budur, a pet slave 
 of the mother of young Hafiz Bey, had been pre- 
 sented to him for his comfort on this journey, since 
 his bride, of high ideas, refused to travel. She had 
 been a little frightened in the train, a new experience, 
 but much elated till she came on board this ship and 
 felt the sea. Then she realised that she had been 
 beguiled, defrauded, enticed to an undignified and 
 hideous death. Hiccuping sobs broke in upon her 
 narrative, which ended in a storm of tears. 
 
 Barakah tried to soothe her mind with cheerful 
 talk, depicting all the charms of life in Paris. 
 
 " Thy voice is sweetness ! " she entreated. " Stay 
 with me ! Turn out my consort : let him house with 
 thine. What does one want with men when one is 
 dying? 
 
 Going out on that injunction, Barakah found 
 Hafiz and her husband waiting close at hand. The 
 former, greatly scared by his companion's illness, 
 was prepared for any sacrifice to save her life; and 
 Yusuf raising no objection, Barakah's effects were 
 moved into the other cabin, while Hafiz took his 
 baggage to the " house of Yusuf," as he called it, 
 jesting. 
 
 Bedr-ul-Budur gave praise to Allah. The pres-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 129 
 
 ence of a lady of acknowledged standing relieved 
 her of the sense of singular and base ill-treatment, 
 which was all her illness. 
 
 At length the ship stood still and filled with voices. 
 It was night. The men called from the corridor 
 to warn them that the landing would take place at 
 the third hour next morning. Thus bidden, they 
 took out their Frankish garments and compared 
 them. 
 
 Barakah's were old, of sober hue. Bedr-ul- 
 Budur's brand-new and something garish. They 
 slept but little, talking through the night. 
 
 When Barakah had finished dressing in the early 
 morning, her companion, waking, screamed with 
 horror at the English veil. 
 
 " Merciful Allah ! It is dreadful. It hides noth- 
 ing. It is what the wantons wear. Wait but a 
 minute ! I have more than one. I will provide thee. 
 My kind princess advised me what was right to 
 wear." 
 
 Tumbling out of her berth, Bedr-ul-Budur found 
 in her box a fold of thick white gauze, which she 
 proceeded to throw round the face of Barakah, at- 
 taching it to the bonnet with two little brooches. 
 
 " By Allah, that is better ! " she remarked, and 
 then gave all her mind to her own dressing. 
 
 When this was finished, her appearance smote the 
 eye. Her bonnet was sky-blue, the thick white veil 
 depending from it like a curtain, her dress a lively 
 pink, her stockings white, her boots and gloves bright
 
 130 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 yellow, shining in their newness ; she had a pale blue 
 parasol adorned with frills of lace. 
 
 " The Franks wear many colours," she remarked 
 to Barakah, adding with childish wonder, " Why are 
 yours so dull? . . . By Allah, I feel naked in the 
 middle." 
 
 So did Barakah. To one accustomed to go 
 shrouded, a dress which emphasised the hips and 
 bust seemed vile at first. 
 
 Yusuf and Hafiz fetched them up on deck, where 
 they found two more ladies garishly arrayed, and 
 two more men in French-made suits and fezes. 
 
 After the introduction all stood awkwardly, gap- 
 ing like children who have lost remembrance of their 
 part. Barakah, to ease the strain, remarked to 
 Hafiz Bey upon the beauty of the morning, the 
 bustle of the harbour of Marseilles ; but his response 
 was marred by evident embarrassment; his eyes kept 
 veering round to look at Yusuf, whom he soon re- 
 joined. The ladies formed a group apart, in titters 
 at each other's odd appearance. Presently a man, 
 clad as a Frank, approached with Arab greetings. 
 He kissed the hand of Hafiz Bey, who welcomed him. 
 It seemed he had been warned by letter to prepare 
 the way for them. 
 
 " All is ready, lords of bounty ! " he exclaimed. 
 " Deign but to follow me, the ladies with you." 
 
 The drive along the quays through noisy streets 
 to the hotel, the breakfast which their guide assured 
 them had been cooked and chosen in accordance with
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 religious law, were trammelled by constraint, and 
 went off sadly. Only in the train, where they were 
 separated, each sex enjoying a reserved compart- 
 ment, did conversation flow. Among the women it 
 was soon uproarious. They talked and laughed half 
 through the night, appealing constantly to Barakah, 
 a European born, for information. The appearance 
 of the men at every station, to ascertain that they 
 were well, produced a hush; but no sooner were the 
 despots gone again than the mad talk and laughter 
 raged anew. 
 
 At length they tired and tried to rest. They 
 cursed the narrowness of the divans, the work of 
 devils. When morning came, Bedr-ul-Budur was at 
 the point of death once more, asking her Maker what 
 she had done to earn such disrespectful treatment; 
 while Barakah, beside the window, looking out at 
 Christian villages, was haunted by remembrance and 
 grew sad. 
 
 The sun had long been up when they reached 
 Paris. Yusuf and Hafiz, Bedr-ul-Budur and Bara- 
 kah, packed in one cab, were driven with a rattle 
 through tumultuous streets to the hotel where rooms 
 had been engaged for them. The hostess, a stout 
 woman elegantly dressed in black, and the entire staff 
 stood out to welcome them. The woman bowed in- 
 cessantly, adressing Yusuf and his friend as " Mon- 
 seigneur." Finding that Barakah knew French she 
 drew to her and poured a smooth flow of amenities 
 into her ear.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " Madame has only to command all that she 
 desires. The nobility of the Orient are our most 
 valued clients. Should madame require conversa- 
 tion, I am always at her service. The princes come 
 to Paris for diversion, that is understood. Young 
 men so rich ! They must amuse themselves ! But 
 then their ladies must not find the life too sad." 
 
 Thus prattling, she conducted them upstairs and 
 flung open a door, exclaiming : " Voila ! " Crossing 
 the landing to another door, she flung that open 
 also. " Voila ! " she cried again. Bedr-ul-Budur, 
 so tired that she could hardly drag her feet up, chose 
 the left-hand room, which happened to be nearest. 
 Yusuf and Barakah proceeded to the other. Both 
 parties ordered coffee and some light refreshment, 
 and after breakfasting went straight to bed. They 
 rested until evening, when the men went out to find 
 their friends, whose lodging was close by. They 
 returned with sundry purchases, hats, gloves, and 
 scarves, which they declared they needed for com- 
 plete disguise. 
 
 On the next morning the whole party, in two 
 carriages, went out to smell the air and view the city. 
 It was a cloudless day and the streets sparkled, the 
 trees along the boulevards were like fat green posies. 
 They were feeling happy when, in an important 
 thoroughfare, they discovered people pointing at 
 them, drivers shouting. Yusuf and his seat com- 
 panion Hafiz grew uncomfortable. Cries of amaze-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 183 
 
 ment reached them from the other carriage. Their 
 cabman turned round with a grin and told them: 
 
 " ' Place aux dames,' messieurs ! That is what 
 they cry. These ladies are not slaves with us, que 
 diable!" 
 
 The two men had been lounging in the roomy seat 
 which faced the horse. They at once resigned it, 
 addressing bows and smiles of deference to the angry 
 multitude; and called out to their friends to do the 
 like. But the incident destroyed their pleasure in 
 the drive; nor were the ladies happy in the seat of 
 honour, a gazing-stock for infidels who might possess 
 the evil eye. 
 
 " Saw one ever such fanaticism? " groaned Yusuf. 
 " And they call this country free a place where 
 every one does what he likes ! " 
 
 That afternoon was spent in the hotel in a strange 
 manner; Barakah, at the demand of Yusuf, instruct- 
 ing the four men in foreign customs. They posed 
 and pirouetted in her salon, rehearsing bows, the 
 flourish of a hat, the proper compliments; while the 
 three girls looked on with saucer eyes. After dinner 
 they again appeared before her, this time without 
 their fezes, wearing hats which gave to them a very 
 villainous and sleek appearance. Required to criti- 
 cise their dress and bearing from a Frankish stand- 
 point, she suggested some improvements which were 
 hailed with gratitude. Yusuf returned home after 
 midnight, tired but garrulous. It seemed that they 
 had lighted on a charming Frenchman, who under-
 
 took to show them all the sights. Next day the men 
 rose late and then went out together, leaving the 
 women to their own devices; returned to dinner, then 
 went off again, remaining out this time till nearly 
 morning. 
 
 The programme did not vary on succeeding days. 
 The girls, deserted, clung to Barakah. They wailed 
 and prayed to God, and dreamed of Cairo. At 
 length one of them it was Bedr-ul-Budur took 
 courage to reproach her lord; when all four men 
 were stricken with amazement. They had thought 
 the ladies would be gay indoors without them, as they 
 were at home. To cheer them up, a trip to Versailles 
 was arranged. It passed off gaily, with less shyness 
 than usually appeared when they all mixed together. 
 As they strolled about the park, a youth named Izz- 
 ud-din made up to Barakah, and with the greatest 
 diffidence implored her to confide to him the secret 
 how to win the love of Frankish ladies. When she 
 smilingly assured him there was none, he cried: 
 
 " O Lord of Heaven ! Then thou wilt not tell it. 
 They are so easy to their own men, as we know from 
 books; to us so difficult. It cannot be fanaticism, 
 since we seem as Franks." 
 
 " But what need hast thou of women, with a pearl 
 of beauty here beside thee ? " questioned Barakah. 
 
 " One who has beheld thy loveliness must ever- 
 more desire the like of it! Oh, that thou hadst a 
 sister for me ! " he made answer glibly. 
 
 He moved away, but presently another came and
 
 VEILED WOMEN 135 
 
 made the same preposterous request, retreating with 
 the same forced compliment; and on the journey 
 home, when Yusuf closed his eyes and seemed to 
 sleep, Hafiz Bey, whom she had thought more 
 sensible, approached her in his turn. When she de- 
 nied all knowledge of the matter he answered in low 
 tones : 
 
 " There is a secret, that is known, by Allah. 
 Thou hast it, and hast given hints to Yusuf; else 
 why should he be more successful than the rest of 
 us?" 
 
 " Because he is better looking," it was on the tip 
 of her tongue to say, as she surveyed the fat, good- 
 tempered face of Hafiz with its Chinese eyes. It was 
 all that she could do to keep from screams of 
 laughter. 
 
 " It is my dream," he whispered. " By Allah it 
 disturbs my nights with cruel pain to take a lady 
 just like thee in all respects a Frank and noble, of 
 extreme refinement back with me to Masr." 
 
 She derided him. He still continued pleading, 
 supporting his petition with the grossest flattery, till 
 they reached home, when Yusuf suddenly sprang up 
 and glowered at Hafiz. He had been feigning sleep. 
 It was a thunderbolt. Bedr-ul-Budur screamed 
 warning to her lord, who gave but a single look and 
 fled indoors, the jealous one pursuing like a madman. 
 In the hall the harmless youth was overtaken and 
 turned round to plead. With a howl of " Dog ! " 
 Yusuf sprang at his throat and bore him to the
 
 136 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 ground. Like dogs in very truth they fought till 
 parted by the hotel servants with the help of broom- 
 sticks ; while Barakah strove in vain to make her ex- 
 planation heard; Bedr-ul-Budur appealed to Allah 
 and the prophet; and the landlady from the third 
 step of the stairs, with hands and eyes thrown up, 
 exclaimed repeatedly: 
 
 " O ciel ! C'est monseigneur ! "
 
 HALF an hour later Yusuf and Hafiz were in each 
 other's arms, sighing gustily and rocking to and fro 
 in the ecstasy of reconciliation. Barakah had ex- 
 plained things to her husband in the interim, taking 
 him to task severely for his savage conduct. To be 
 thought uncivilised had always been his dread, and 
 just then, with red eyes and all dishevelled, a-quiver 
 from the fray, he stood convicted. With repentant 
 tears he ran to ask forgiveness of his late antagonist. 
 
 It was decided that they twain, with their respec- 
 tive consorts, should spend the evening quietly in 
 Yusuf 's room; in pursuance of which resolution they 
 had supped together, and Bedr-ul-Budur, who owned 
 a lute, was going to sing, when a card was brought 
 to Hafiz by the chamber-maid. He frowned and 
 clenched his teeth as he examined it. 
 
 " It is the Prince, my uncle ! " he exclaimed. 
 " He has been told our whereabouts ; it must be by 
 my father, since we have been careful not to call on 
 any of the Turks in Paris. O Calamity ! My uncle 
 is correct and cold, a madman who condemns all 
 pleasure." 
 
 With haste he sent his concubine into her own 
 apartment, while Yusuf hustled Barakah into tht 
 
 137
 
 138 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 dressing-room and locked Hie door. No would-be 
 Franks received the exiled Prince, but a pair of 
 ceremonious Orientals, with fezes carried at the most 
 respectful angle, who strove with one another to be 
 first to kiss his hand. 
 
 The Prince was a tremendous talker. A scion of 
 the ruling house of Egypt, enduring banishment for 
 his political opinions, he began upon the state of that 
 unhappy country for which he saw no hope save in 
 a European form of government. He wished the 
 young men to attend the meeting of his club, " the 
 Friends of Progress," at a cafe on the Boulevard des 
 Italiens ; and the young men swore to do so on the 
 first evening they could spare from the study of 
 French thought and institutions which at present 
 took up every minute of their time. 
 
 From national affairs the Prince passed on to 
 household matters, advocating education for all 
 women and promotion to an equal rank with men. 
 At this his nephew cried: 
 
 " We think as you do, having each a lady whom 
 we treat precisely in the Frankish manner. Yusuf 
 here present has espoused a noble Englishwoman, 
 who instructs us. Introduce her, Yusuf, since my 
 uncle shares our views." 
 
 Barakah expected her release, which she had long 
 desired, for the Prince's voice was wonderfully sweet 
 and winning, and she burned with curiosity to see 
 his face. But the talk sheered off from her. The 
 Prince, resenting the intrusion of a concrete instance
 
 VEILED WOMEN 139 
 
 on ideas, rebuked the young man sternly, causing 
 both to cringe. 
 
 " You mistake my meaning," he informed them. 
 " God forbid that I should wish our ladies to re- 
 semble closely those of Europe. If you desire that, 
 you are very foolish. The harim life, or something 
 like it, is the best for women. It only needs reform 
 and elevation. It is a system founded on the laws 
 of God expressed in nature, whereas the European 
 way of treating women has no sanction. The latter 
 seems entirely meretricious when one sees how ladies 
 here make sport of marriage and shun motherhood 
 how children flout and override their parents. If 
 the understanding of our women were improved, 
 their status raised, I think our way would be ac- 
 knowledged better by impartial judges. No, all that 
 I would borrow from the Franks would be a weapon. 
 They excel us in mechanical contrivances, in prac- 
 tical education, and in method. These gifts I covet, 
 for with equal weapons we should be their masters ; 
 our Faith exceeding any motive power which they 
 possess." 
 
 He went on talking in this strain till nearly mid- 
 night, when he left abruptly. Barakah was then 
 let out of the dark prison. Alone with Yusuf, she 
 inquired his real opinion of the Prince's views, which 
 seemed to her inspiring. 
 
 " Like pitch ! Like dung ! " he answered in the 
 vulgar speech of Egypt. " The production of ideas 
 is an amusing pastime. It is strange, the things
 
 140 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 a man can think of if he applies his mind to it. And 
 when a Prince is speaking one admires, of course; 
 though this one is a madman who has lost a fine po- 
 sition and will lose his life merely for love of argu- 
 ment. What we are and do belongs to Allah. No 
 thinking or wild talk affects it, praise to Him ! " 
 
 He seemed glad to change the subject. Putting 
 his arm round Barakah, he begged her in seductive 
 tones to confide to him the secret about Frankish 
 women. 
 
 " It is not for myself I ask," he whispered fondly ; 
 " but Hafiz, Izz-un-din, and Sai'd die to know. 
 Where are these balls at which distinguished women 
 fling aside all shame? We have been to dances, but 
 the women there are base and ribald, showing none of 
 that refinement in depravity which charms the mind 
 in writings of this country." 
 
 In vain did she assure him that good Frankish 
 women were every whit as moral as good Orientals. 
 
 " We have their books for testimony," was his 
 answer. And again he told her : " It is for my 
 friends I plead. I myself, as is well known, desire 
 thee only." 
 
 The women were left more and more alone, the 
 private explorations of their lords bereaving them 
 by day as well as night. Barakah did her best to 
 entertain them. Together with the landlady she 
 planned excursions, and took them to the ateliers 
 where modes are created. But the sense of desola- 
 tion dogged them everywhere. Scenes which they
 
 VEILED WOMEN 14,1 
 
 might have viewed with pleasure had their lords been 
 faithful, encounters which might then have given 
 them a thrill of mischief, appeared heartrending in 
 their luckless state. The very gaiety of the Parisian 
 streets seemed gruesome. If a man in passing 
 touched them they were seized with trembling, and 
 once or twice came very near to fainting from pure 
 shame; and their terror was intense at passing un- 
 known doorways, though, the landlady assured them 
 there was not the slightest danger. 
 
 Their haunting fear was lest male unbelievers 
 should abduct them; still more, perhaps, lest they 
 should come to wish for such a fate the most ap- 
 palling that could be imagined for a Muslim woman. 
 Bedr-ul-Budur declared she knew a girl who, married 
 to an infidel, brought forth black beetles " not 
 one, but thousands ! millions ! " she related graphic- 
 ally which at length devoured her. Such stories 
 were received with acclamation, as justifying the ex- 
 treme abhorrence which they felt for Frenchmen. 
 And Barakah, though she tried to reason with them, 
 shared their feelings in some measure, dismayed by 
 the vulgarity of Western life. When, added to all 
 this, it rained for five days in succession, her friends 
 resigned their cause to God and ceased to worry, 
 while she herself grew thoroughly despondent. 
 
 The girls shrugged shoulders at the sinful folly 
 of their owners, now too far gone in dissipation to 
 endure reproaches. 
 
 " It is a malady, a madness," said Bedr-ul-Budur,
 
 142 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 with resignation. " It is the air of infidelity in this 
 accursed city. We did wrong to travel unprovided 
 with the antidote, which must be known to sages and 
 obtainable. It is bad enough for us, but what of 
 Barakah a chief wife, a great lady? How can 
 she endure it? " 
 
 Barakah did at last think fit to make a protest. 
 One night and early morning she sat up for Yusuf, 
 and her reproaches met with a success which startled 
 her. He wept aloud and flung himself upon the 
 floor. His face was ghastly. When questioned, he 
 confessed that he had sinned most foully, having that 
 night consumed so much abomination that on his way 
 home he had been struck down by God with awful 
 sickness and had nearly died. He swore that none 
 but devils lived in Paris, and implored her to trans- 
 port him back to Egypt. 
 
 A picture seen the previous morning in a shop 
 upon the boulevard had roused in Barakah the wish 
 to visit Switzerland. She longed to walk by forest 
 streams, beneath great mountains, in solitude, with 
 keen, cool breezes to restore her spirits. 
 
 " Paris is not the whole of Europe," she informed 
 him gently. " There are scenes of famous beauty 
 which we ought to visit. Take me to Switzerland ! " 
 
 " At once ! " he cried. " This very day now 
 dawning! By Allah, I would go to Gebel Caf with 
 thee alone to get away from Paris." 
 
 She bade him tell his friends to treat their women 
 better, which he swore to do; and directly after
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 breakfast took him out, while his resolve was eager, 
 to obtain money from the bank where he had credit, 
 and buy tickets to Geneva, the first name occurring 
 to her. She was glad that she had taken the pre- 
 caution when, later in the day, she saw his purpose 
 weaken. The tickets actually bought alone sustained 
 it, for he had the Oriental's shrewd regard for 
 money's worth. That night they spent in the train, 
 both cherishing sensations of deliverance, though 
 those of Barakah were chequered by the vision of 
 three weeping girls, who at the moment of departure 
 had embraced her knees and tried to hold her. 
 
 Their Alpine tour, however, was of short dura- 
 tion. Yvisuf was contented in Geneva, giving praise 
 to Allah for the vast supply of drinking water. But 
 when, at her suggestion, they moved on to Cham- 
 ounix, his feeling changed. His face went green as 
 on that night in Paris. His nostrils and his eyes 
 distended to their utmost, reminding the observer of 
 a frightened horse. The sight of the great moun- 
 tains closing in and hanging over him oppressed his 
 soul with terror which was not diminished by the 
 occurrence in the hour of their arrival of a dreadful 
 thunderstorm. When he saw the numbers of the 
 visitors he gasped and questioned : " Come these 
 here for pleasure? Is it possible? A place so 
 frightful, so appalling, like Gehennum ! If one came 
 with a large company, with music and loud songs 
 that never ceased, and kept his eyes shut all the time, 
 it might be bearable; supposing one were forced to
 
 144 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 do it, for some crime. . . . For pleasure, sayest 
 thou? What pleasure can they find? " 
 
 " They walk and climb the mountains. They love 
 Nature. And the air is excellent." 
 
 " By Allah, wild beasts ! Human beings are more 
 sensitive. How can they love Nature who approve 
 her in most horrid mood? It is evident that God 
 Most High designed such scenes for a warning and a 
 menace, to be shunned. Yet these applaud. They 
 are utterly devoid of feeling. May Our Lord de- 
 stroy them ! " 
 
 A prey to panic, he no longer heard her arguments. 
 His one desire was to rejoin his friends as soon as 
 might be, to see once more the visage of a true 
 believer; and two days later they were back in Paris. 
 
 Barakah's return was hailed with rapture by the 
 hapless girls, who had not ventured out of doors 
 during her absence. Things, they declared, were 
 even worse than ere she left, their men more shame- 
 less. Yusuf had sworn beforehand to discounte- 
 nance their ill-behaviour, and for the first two days 
 he kept his word ; though Hafiz and the others begged 
 her to release him from it, protesting that their oc- 
 cupations were most innocent. Indeed, their child- 
 like zest in evil-doing so resembled innocence that she 
 felt cruel when refusing, as if denying babies some 
 small pleasure. But on the third day Yusuf came to 
 her, with worried frown, and said : 
 
 " Hafiz and the rest, I f e ir, are going much too 
 far. I feel responsible for them, since we are all one
 
 VEILED WOMEN 145 
 
 party. They do not tell me all their pranks. I 
 have been thinking. It is my duty to be with them 
 and restrain their conduct." 
 
 " Do what thou judgest right and God preserve 
 thee ! " answered Barakah, with a point of irony 
 which he did not perceive. 
 
 " My conscience is relieved," he cried. " I thank 
 thee. God knows how it has troubled me since our 
 return." 
 
 That evening he departed with his friends, leaving 
 Barakah to hear the lamentations of the girls. 
 
 "They are all bewitched," cried Bedr. " Hafiz 
 is by nature pious. Even now he names the Name 
 of Allah when he opens any door and curses the 
 religion of the infidels when passing by their idols 
 in the streets and squares. Our Lord preserve his 
 life! Each night I see him dead in some disgrace- 
 ful haunt, his house dishonoured. Oh that I knew 
 a good magician, a true believer, in thi,s land of 
 mangy dogs ! " 
 
 Their fears, against her will, infected Barakah; 
 during the long night-watches they became a sick- 
 ness, and when day broke again they seemed con- 
 tinned. Yusuf had not returned. She went to 
 Bedr-ul-Budur and found her in the seme axiety. 
 They sat together, wondering what to do. Grey 
 light at the window, raindrops coursing down the 
 panes, made anguish visible. 
 
 At length, when eight o'clock had struck, there 
 came a note for Barakah. It was in French, and
 
 146 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 from the exiled Prince, the revolutionary. It bade 
 her have no fear; her husband would be with her 
 in an hour, when the writer hoped, with her permis- 
 sion, to present his compliments in person and explain 
 the case. The other girls had come by that time 
 from their lodgings to get strength from Barakah. 
 Conjecture ravened round the simple statement in 
 the letter. At ten o'clock the Prince sent up his 
 card; the three girls fled across the passage just in 
 time to avoid encountering the visitor, who led into 
 the room the errant youths. The Prince, a lean, 
 ascetic-looking man, with boyish eyes, bowed low to 
 Barakah. 
 
 " Madame," he opened, with a flourish of his hand 
 towards the group of reprobates, " I ask you to re- 
 member of your husband, and also beg you to remind 
 the fair companions of my nephew and these other 
 gentlemen, that they are young, these boys, and 
 therefore capable of progress. It is a proof that 
 they possess some germ of sense, which later may 
 develop into mind, that, being terrified at last, they 
 sent to me. I found them in a most equivocal posi- 
 tion in fact, dear madame, at the Conciergerie. 
 Thanks to my relations with important people in this 
 city, I had no difficulty in procuring their release, 
 since they were not precisely- guilty, only imbecile. 
 I am glad to have been able to assist them, for the 
 love I bear their parents and our common Faith. 
 But they will allow me to remark that vicious boys 
 should travel only with a tutor, who should have a
 
 VEILED WOMEN 147 
 
 whip. It disgusts me even to conceive that any man 
 could be so foolish as to quit the side of one so lovely 
 and so virtuous as you, madame, to follow beastliness. 
 Dear madame, your servant ! " 
 
 He retired; when Yusuf and the others pressed 
 round Barakah, a group of penitent and frightened 
 children. Hafiz, the fat, knelt down before her, 
 tears coursing down his- cheeks ; Said kissed her 
 raiment ; Yusuf pleaded in her ear. They had done 
 wrong, they owned, though nothing very dreadful. 
 Some elegant ladies had admitted them to their 
 society ; they were sitting in a cafe communing in all 
 refinement, when horrible low men arrived and claimed 
 those ladies. One threw a glass at Said and cut his 
 face the wound was shown on which there was 
 a scuffle; gendarmes came and, siding with their co- 
 religionists, conveyed the righteous Muslims straight 
 to prison. 
 
 " Where we should have stayed for ever, had not 
 Hafiz thought of calling in his uncle," blubbered 
 Izz-ud-din ; " simply for being Muslims, they are so 
 fanatical." 
 
 All four were bent upon return to Egypt, since 
 Paris had become a place of terror. The rapture 
 of the girls was indescribable. They danced and 
 clapped their hands, embraced each other, laughed, 
 cried, and gave way to all kinds of folly. Bedr- 
 ul-Budur made vows to divers saints, and held de- 
 lighted conversations with her mother long since dead. 
 
 Four days later they were all on board a steamer,
 
 148 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 quitting France. The sea was smooth; the ladies 
 stayed on deck. There was no longer any question 
 of confining them in stuffy cabins ; experience of 
 Frankish manners had done that much good. 
 
 Yusuf turned round from cursing the fair country 
 they were leaving, to look ahead across the vast 
 expanse of sparkling sea. 
 
 " O land of Egypt ! Blessed one ! " he sighed. 
 " Most beautiful of all that see the sun ! In thee 
 are no hideous and shocking mountains, no cata- 
 racts, no chasms, no ferocious beasts or savage 
 people such as appal the traveller in other lands. 
 All is flat and smooth and debonair in thee; and if 
 thou housest infidels they dare not bite. Thy Nile 
 is smooth and good to drink, not putrid and for ever 
 kicking like the sea. May Allah bring us to thy 
 shores in safety and never let us leave them any 
 more, but live in honour, eating, drinking, fasting in 
 due season, praising God, doing good deeds, and 
 getting many children ! " 
 
 At this conclusion there was laughter and ap- 
 plause. 
 
 "Amin!" cried Hafiz. "By Allah, it is true. 
 The air of lands of infidelity breeds madness. Hail, 
 O Egypt!"
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 " A RARE place, by Allah ! full to the brim of 
 education and refinement. It is there that one ac- 
 quires the latest mode and learns to view all creatures 
 with fastidious eyes. In Paris people would be 
 angered at the ignorance which prevails even among 
 our greatest learned men. Thou too shouldst go to 
 Paris, O my dear ! " 
 
 Thus Hafiz Bey at Alexandria, to a relative who 
 came on board to welcome him. Barakah was much 
 amused to overhear him, as also Yusuf vaunting 
 Paris to Ghandur; who, weeping all the time and 
 sighing " Praise to Allah ! " heard not a word of 
 what his lord was pleased to say. Great was the joy 
 of seeing Egypt once again. Even for the girls, it 
 wiped out all unpleasantness, making a plaintive 
 tone impossible. 
 
 Shrouded once more in habbarah and face-veil, 
 they stood and watched the crowd of buildings faint 
 with sunshine, seeming diaphanous between the sap- 
 phire sky and the blue sea that looked opaque as lapis 
 lazuli. A gaily coloured people thronged the quays 
 and crossed the harbour in innumerable little boats. 
 A din as rousing as a clarion call, composed of many 
 simple noises, filled the sunlight. The girls, exhik- 
 
 149
 
 150 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 rated, danced on tiptoe as they waited for the word to 
 go ashore. They chattered like small birds, inconse- 
 quently, and every minute interjected " Praise to 
 Allah ! " Barakah inclined to silence, though she 
 shared their rapture. 
 
 The face-veil, which she had not worn for many 
 weeks, seemed strange at first. It gave the sense of 
 prying and slight mischief one has in peeping over 
 a forbidding wall. Her eyes above it seemed more 
 penetrating. She turned them from the crowd on 
 shore to follow Yusuf's movements. He was now 
 himself again, correct and dignified, commanding as 
 of right, entirely rehabilitated in her good opinion. 
 It seemed to her that the contempt she had so lately 
 felt for him was undeserved. Sinking in a strange 
 element, he had lost his head and for a moment clung 
 to her. The case had been her own at first in Egypt. 
 A minute previous she had said good-bye to Hafiz, 
 Izz-ud-din, and Said. It was curious to know that 
 though they would be dwelling near her in the city, 
 meeting Yvisuf daily, she would very likely never see 
 them in this world again. But the prospect did not 
 sadden her at all. Shade and seclusion seemed just 
 then the highest good. 
 
 Having spoken their polite farewells, Yusuf and 
 his companions took no further notice of the group 
 of veiled ones. Ghandur had been deputed to look 
 after them. He ushered them on shore, and sat be- 
 side the driver of the carriage which conveyed them 
 to the railway station, praising Allah all the while
 
 VEILED WOMEN 111 
 
 and weeping tears of joy. In Barakah's absence, h 
 declared repeatedly, there had been no breeze in 
 Egypt nor any spot of shade for man's repose. He 
 found them their reserved compartment in the train, 
 and supplied their many needs, procuring sweets, 
 chickpease, pistachio nuts, and hard-boiled eggs 
 from venders on the platform, as well as two large 
 porous jars of drinking-water. The girls asked 
 Allah to take note how good he was, and called him 
 brother. 
 
 The dazzle and intoxication of great light re- 
 mained with them even when the door was shut and 
 they were in warm shade. The sunlight here was 
 not like that of Paris, a thing to stare at, but a 
 blinding glory. It danced in flakes of all the colours 
 of the rainbow, making the buildings and the people 
 pale and ghostlike. The very heat which soon 
 reigned in their moving box, the very dust which 
 drifted through its shutters, were welcome, being 
 heat and dust of Egypt; and at the stations, when 
 familiar cries were heard, the speech of true believers 
 built upon the name of Allah, the girls could not con- 
 tain their sentiments, but bounced upon the seats and 
 shrieked for joy. 
 
 " Hear what I am going to do, by Allah's leave," 
 cried Bedr. " Immediately on my arrival at the 
 palace, before seeing any one, I shall go to the ham- 
 mam and make our old bellanah scrub and knead me 
 till every vestige of the dust of Paris is abolished. 
 Then she shall dye my hands and feet with henna
 
 152 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 and shall kohl my eyes and eyebrows, if we had 
 not been forbidden to take kohl to Paris, our men 
 would not have left us as they did, and then I 
 shall stretch myself like a sleek cat and looking at my 
 pretty hennaed toes, shall say, ' I seek refuge in 
 Allah from the abomination of the infidels.' That 
 done, and being dressed in my most splendid robes, 
 I shall present myself before my ladies, and shall lie 
 to them; declaring that I was most happy there in 
 Paris, that Hafiz Bey refused to leave me for a single 
 instant. The ladies will not doubt me, seeing my 
 great beauty, and Hafiz Bey, you may be sure, will 
 not deny my story. Thus shall I gain more favour 
 in his eyes, and make his wife the proud one! 
 wish that she had gone instead of me. What say 
 you? " 
 
 " By Allah, we will do the same in all respects ! " 
 her companions cried delightedly. *' But what of 
 Barakah? Promise, Barakah, to hide the truth 
 from the harim ! " 
 
 Barakah promised; when they made her swear to 
 love them always, though they were but slave-girls 
 and she a dignified and noble lady, for the sake of 
 the misfortunes they had borne together. They all 
 clung round her when the train reached Cairo. The 
 door of their compartment was flung open by Sawwab 
 in person, grinning welcome, with other eunuchs 
 close behind him on the platform. 
 
 Sawwab conducted Barakah with honour to the 
 harira carriage, entering which she was hugged
 
 VEILED WOMEN 153 
 
 breathless by the lady Fitnah, while Leylah 
 Khanum and her daughters started chattering, 
 telling her all the news at once and in a single 
 breath. 
 
 Gulbeyzah had been married a whole month. She 
 was absent in the country with her lord's whole 
 house, but would return, it was expected, in a week 
 or two. Had Barakah heard in Europe no doubt 
 she had that the Sea Canal was to be opened in 
 the coming year, with great festivities ? the King 
 and Queen of France were coming, it was rumoured. 
 Murjanah Khanum had been far from well. That 
 was why she had not come to welcome Barakah, to 
 whom she sent her warmest salutations. Barakah 
 was not going to the garden-house this time, but to 
 the Pasha's palace, to remain with them, the praise 
 to Allah! Fitnah herself had seen the rooms 
 cleaned out and perfumed. One of the blacks, 
 Zamurrudah, was dead, the Lord have mercy on 
 her ! The old striped cat had kittens, lucky one ! 
 The Pasha's nieces were quite positive about the 
 fact, though no one had been able to find out their 
 hiding-place. 
 
 As Barakah, caressed by all of them, received 
 this outpour, her feeling of home-coming was com- 
 plete. And when she came to her own gilded salon 
 the same where she had sipped the poison which 
 seemed now a dream there was a slave-girl of 
 Murjanah Khanum's waiting to conduct her to the 
 bath, with a present of rare flowers and fruit, and a
 
 154 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 robe of honour which she was to don, when she had 
 rested, for supper in Murjanah Khanum's rooms 
 where all the ladies were invited to meet her. 
 
 The ladies, having voided their own news, desired 
 a full account of Paris and her doings. " In sh' 
 Allah, thou wast happy there ! " they all exclaimed. 
 When she replied, " My happiness is here with you," 
 the answer gave unbounded satisfaction. From 
 their remarks she learnt, to her no small amazement, 
 that Hafiz Bey was the son of her old friend Ammah 
 Khanum. 
 
 " Thou didst not know? " they cried. " How can 
 that be? And Bedr-ul-Budur surely thou hast 
 heard of her the slave whose beauty the Princess 
 was always vaunting? It is very strange!" 
 
 The placid gossip and the shaded calm existence 
 were delightful after months of agitation. Barakah 
 fell into the harim habits with enthusiasm, devour- 
 ing sweetstuff at all hours, enjoying cigarettes and 
 the narghileh. The best part of her morning was 
 spent at the bath, where the ladies met for gossip 
 and for healthful exercise; her afternoon in seeing 
 visitors or paying visits. Gulbeyzah came to see her, 
 radiating gladness, extolling not her husband but her 
 fellow-wives. 
 
 " We spend such merry days together," she in- 
 formed her friend. " Oh, how much better than to 
 be an only wife ! " 
 
 When Barakah returned the visit, she was re- 
 ceived by the four durrahs with one voice of wel-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 155 
 
 come. The four together formed a charming small 
 society, quite independent of the husband's humours 
 and the outside world. All their possessions they 
 enjoyed in common, even children. Barakah was 
 begged to come and see them often, and to love them 
 all. 
 
 She would have been completely happy in those 
 days but for embarrassment arising from a secret 
 which she longed yet feared to tell. She was with 
 child. Suspicion grew to certainty and still she put 
 off the announcement, dreading the outcry of these 
 candid women and the harim ceremonies. It slipped 
 from her by accident, one afternoon, and the fuss 
 they made proved even worse than expectation. 
 
 Ammah Khanum brought Bedr-ul-Budur to see 
 her, saying: 
 
 " This girl of mine has news to tell you." 
 
 The old Princess herself proclaimed the news with 
 praise to Allah. A flush suffused the listener from 
 head to foot. 
 
 " I too " she murmured, and then stopped 
 in great confusion. Aminah Khanum pounced on 
 her with eager questions. Bedr-ul-Budur knelt down 
 before her in an ecstasy. 
 
 " Thou, too, art blest? And thou has kept it 
 secret all this while? " the Princess cried. " O 
 Bedr, go and beg the lady Fitnah to come hither 
 instantly ! " 
 
 " No, no ! " entreated Barakah, distraught with 
 shame.
 
 156 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " replied the other, scoffing at her. 
 " Is this the famed false modesty of England? 
 Praise God Most High that thou art fruitful, 
 praise Him loudly ! " 
 
 The joy of Fitnah Khanum passed all bounds. 
 She sent a messenger at once to Yusuf, another to 
 the Pasha, with the tidings. The Pasha came at 
 once to pay his compliments to Barakah. Yusuf 
 came later, having thought it necessary to circulate 
 the happy news among his friends. Ghandur, who, 
 as the water-carrier of the apartment, sat always in 
 the alley, underneath the lady's lattice, was heard 
 intoning a loud song of triumph, three parts prayer, 
 of which each verse concluded with : " Twin boys, in 
 sh'Allah ! " 
 
 Joy-shrieks resounded; the whole household 
 smiled; her friends thronged round her, informed 
 of her good luck as if by miracle, for black- 
 shrouded newsbearers were ever flitting by shad- 
 owed walls, along the edge of crowded markets, 
 linking the great harims in one society, and what 
 was done in one was known in all. And Barakah 
 alone saw any call for shame or reticence. 
 
 From that day forth she was the idol of her little 
 world, her every want forestalled by warm solicitude. 
 Murjanah Khanum talked to her in a religious 
 strain; Fitnah, more homely, prepared dainties for 
 her; the Pasha's sister came and told her stories. 
 The very children talked aloud of her condition, and 
 hailed it as a blessing to the house.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 157 
 
 She had a good excuse for shunning the festivi- 
 ties which took place on the arrival of the Emperor 
 of the French in Cairo ; though her husband was era- 
 ployed in the reception, and all the ladies were agog 
 to see the Empress. She wished to be entirely Ori- 
 ental. Prankish talk disgusted her. Any reminder 
 that the Europeans still existed was annoying; how 
 much more to hear them vaunted by her Eastern 
 friends. Yusuf himself made fun of her fanaticism. 
 The women humoured her conceit with knowing 
 smiles. 
 
 Gulbeyzah and Bedr-ul-Budur, both in the same 
 condition, were her constant visitors. Aminah Kha- 
 num gave advice in her brusque way, and as the 
 Englishwoman's time drew near, did more for her 
 protection than she knew of in her illness ; impress- 
 ing on Muhammad Pasha through Murjanah the 
 necessity of calling in a Frankish doctor, and her- 
 self procuring from the Mufti the religious judgment 
 which stilled the angry outcry of the harim mid- 
 wives. 
 
 The hour of trial came at length an anguish 
 worse than death, succeeded by a happiness as calm 
 as heaven. From the cries of jubilation filling all 
 the house, from the blessings showered on her within 
 the chamber, she knew that she had borne a son. 
 She saw the blue of evening at the lattice, heard the 
 murmur of the tired city like a voice of waters, and, 
 lulled by vast contentment, fell asleep.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 NEVER in her life had Barakah seen so many 
 strange old women. There were always four or five 
 of them within her chamber, squatting on mats along 
 the wall, conversing in low tones, ready at a breath 
 to rearrange her pillows, or fetch some posset that 
 was ordered for her. They were all of apelike ugli- 
 ness, and, going barefoot, moved as noiselessly as 
 ghosts. 
 
 The Frankish doctor an Italian had pro- 
 nounced her much too frail to nurse her baby 
 a decision which excited such dependants of the 
 house as were eligible for the post of foster-mother. 
 This was a great prize, kinship by milk, among the 
 Muslims, being esteemed as genuine and binding as 
 by blood. The wet-nurse thus became a near rela- 
 tion of the family, and all her race had claims upon 
 its bounty. Barakah felt jealous of the woman who 
 usurped her function, till she heard from Fitnah 
 Khanum that the choice had fallen on the wife of her 
 old friend Ghandur. The girl, a former slave of the 
 harim, was then presented to her, the baby in her 
 arms; and won her heart by her excessive gratitude. 
 She was touched, too, by the transports of Ghandur, 
 
 158
 
 VEILED WOMEN 159 
 
 who sang thanksgiving to her lattice in his simple 
 way. His chant was something in this manner: 
 
 " The sun is in my eyes ! O happy day ! 
 
 I grope as one half-blind. Behold the bounty of my lord! 
 
 I, the poor slave of Allan, 
 
 Am now the father of his son Abdallah, 
 
 My wife the mother of his son, by leave of Allah, 
 
 My little boy the brother of a child most blest, in sh' Allah! 
 
 The gracious consort of my lord, istaghfar Allah! 
 
 Has granted to our lowliness a share in her good gift from 
 
 Allah. 
 May Allah bless my lord and lady in their noble offspring, and 
 
 preserve his life to be the luminary of our future days." 
 
 She liked to hear him, his voice so near at hand 
 produced a sense of true devotion and security. 
 Missing his chant upon the following day, she in- 
 quired what had become of him. She was informed 
 that, consequent upon his wife's preferment, he had 
 been appointed to a small position in the Govern- 
 ment. It made her sad. 
 
 Her son was given over to the harim midwives to 
 fulfil no end of cerejnonies destined to frustrate the 
 powers of evil. For a week he was not left alone or 
 in the dark a single second. They carried him in a 
 procession through the house, his future kingdom, 
 and as each door was opened, sprinkled salt mixed 
 with the seven seeds to exorcize the jinn who lurked 
 within. Soon after birth his face had been defiled 
 with certain powders, which Barakah could not per- 
 suade the women to wash off. It was a necessary 
 precaution, they assured her, against jealous powers
 
 160 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 of darkness who, if they had an inkling of his beauty, 
 would destroy him. Chief among these was the dis- 
 carded wife of Adam, alluded to as El Carinah (the 
 companion), the cause of man's first fall, who hates 
 Eve's daughters and resents their great fertility. 
 Where a child seems lovely and the mother shows 
 delight in its appearance, she attacks them both; if, 
 on the contrary, she sees it ugly and hears words of 
 disappointment, she lets it live to spite the seed of 
 Adam. For one so powerful, she must be very 
 stupid to be taken in by such pretences, Barakah re- 
 marked; but they cried out that such was not the 
 case, but Allah in His mercy had set limits to her 
 sight and hearing. Each day the infant was the 
 central figure in some ancient rite believed essential 
 to its welfare. 
 
 As Barakah lay in bed and watched the pattern 
 of the lattice, her whole existence passing like a 
 dream before her, she sought to reconcile her 
 former English with her present Eastern life. Her 
 son was a fine boy, they all assured her. It sad- 
 dened her that she had no relations of her own to 
 take a pride in him. In this mood she asked Yusuf 
 to write a little note to Mrs. Cameron entreating her 
 to come one day and see the baby. He did so, and 
 the answer was that she would come with pleasure. 
 
 Elated by the prospect of this visit, Barakah 
 wished to have her offspring made presentable; but 
 when she gave command to wash his face and wrap 
 him in nice clothes, the goodies screamed aloud, and
 
 VEILED WOMEN 161 
 
 fetched the lady Fitnah to remonstrate with her. 
 She gave way, perforce; and Mrs. Cameron beheld 
 the infant at his worst. 
 
 The visitor was very kind in her address to 
 Barakah ; but, when she held the baby for a minute, 
 looking down at it, the latter, watching keenly, saw 
 upon her face a quiver of extreme disfavour mixed 
 with pity. The whiteness of her hands and face 
 showed the child yellow; Barakah had thought him 
 while as snow till then. A flush of anger and humil- 
 iation reached her brain. 
 
 " His face is dirty, the poor little one ! Our Lord 
 preserve him ! " the visitor remarked in Arabic as 
 she returned the baby to his nurse; at which there 
 was an outburst of applause from the onlookers. 
 They called down blessings on the lady's head, de- 
 siring she might have herself a thousand children, 
 not like this one, puny and unpleasant, but most 
 beautiful. 
 
 Barakah, consumed with rage, murmured hoarsely 
 in response to Mrs. Cameron's farewell. The mo- 
 ment she was gone she burst out weeping. 
 
 " She did not like the child ! She scorned my son, 
 because he is not altogether white as she is." 
 
 " Thou mistakest, O my dear ! Be comforted ! " 
 cried Fitnah Khanum, while the other women round 
 her exchanged pitying glances. 
 
 " Thou are not yet perfect in our prudent cus- 
 toms; but thy friend, though not a Muslimah, has 
 learnt them, having been much longer in the land.
 
 162 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Hast thou forgotten my instructions touching El 
 Carinah? Nor is she alone to be redoubted, since 
 Allah Himself abhors a boastful spirit, and dishon- 
 ours those who make too much of any crea- 
 ture. . . ." 
 
 "O Lord! I know all that!" wailed Barakah. 
 " But she disliked my child, despised him ! I I 
 saw it ! " 
 
 Conviction that the portion of the human race 
 from which she sprang beheld her son as little better 
 than a monkey, tortured Barakah. She had looked 
 upon him as a mediator, but now sought revenge. 
 Hot, feverish dreams of hate disturbed her rest ; and 
 when a spell of khamsin weather robbed the world of 
 energy she grew as weak and fretful as her thoughts 
 were wild. 
 
 Already Barakah had kept her bed a fortnight 
 longer than any Eastern woman would have dreamt 
 of doing after childbirth. The lady Fitnah, seeing 
 she did not gain strength, believed that some debili- 
 tating vile afrit was in her. The Prankish doctor 
 said there was no cause of fear. She called him fool 
 and worse, in her own circle ; since by his disregard 
 or ignorance of pious formulas he had left the door 
 ajar for evil spirits. Resolved to stop the mischief, 
 when no man was by she hung a plant of garlic in 
 the room, burnt potent odours till its air grew suffo- 
 cating, and dosed the patient with a paste com- 
 pounded of the dust of mummies mixed with human 
 milk. When these means failed to drive away the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 163 
 
 enemy, she sat down in despair among her cronies, 
 and braced herself to try the last resort of all. 
 
 This was the " zar " a very awful ceremony, of 
 which she was exceedingly afraid. Her wish to hold 
 it in the house risking the Pasha's favour, and her 
 life through terror was proof of her devoted love 
 for Barakah. The dear one must be healed at any 
 price. 
 
 Accordingly, she summoned negresses of those who 
 hold familiar intercourse with demons, bought a kid 
 and several fowls alive, and made arrangements to 
 secure the sickroom to herself and her confederates 
 for two good hours upon a certain afternoon. 
 
 Barakah was roused out of a troubled sleep by 
 women moving out the furniture from both bed- 
 chamber and salon, and covering the floor with worn- 
 out linen and the cheapest matting. They went, and 
 she lay wondering, when Fitnah Khanum came and 
 bade her have no fear. The ceremony she was 
 going to witness was a potent medicine, well calcu- 
 lated to restore her health completely. Many serv- 
 ants, female children, and familiars of the household 
 trooped in with noiseless feet and squatted down 
 along the wall. Then came a group of half a dozen 
 negresses, fantastically dressed in rags of finery, 
 with ringing anklets ; one of whom embraced a strug- 
 gling little goat, while the others bore live chickens 
 by the feet. Bold-eyed and with a swaggering gait, 
 they marched up to the bed, and seemed to offer up 
 the fowls and kid to Barakah, who could not under-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 stand the words they uttered in a screeching chant. 
 They then danced back to the adjoining room, of 
 which the door stood open. Upon the threshold 
 madness seemed to seize them. They fell upon the 
 kid with cries of glee. The creature, bleating pit- 
 eously, was flung into an earthen bowl placed there 
 in readiness. Amid mad laughter knives were 
 brandished and brought down, hands helping to ex- 
 tract the creature's life. The fowls were likewise 
 gashed and torn asunder; the matting round grew 
 foul with steaming entrails. Another minute and the 
 slayers reappeared, their black arms purpled to the 
 elbow, dripping blood, their faces and their lips de- 
 filed with it; and then began a devilish dance of self- 
 abandonment, all the more horrible for its approach 
 to beauty. The sleek skin of the dancers caught 
 blue lights; their fixed eyes gleamed enormous, like 
 those painted on the lids of mummies. Barakah be- 
 lieved herself in hell, for ever lost; it was as if an 
 iron hand compressed, her throat. Her heart beat 
 wildly. One of the women, the most shameless, 
 lurched towards her, stretching out a blood-stained 
 hand. Her heart gave one tremendous beat and then 
 stood still. 
 
 When she recovered consciousness it was to find 
 the lady Fitnah bending over her. The negresses 
 had gone, the room was cleansed, the furniture re- 
 placed exactly as before. She might have thought 
 she had been dreaming had not YusuPs mother whis- 
 pered eagerly:
 
 VEILED WOMEN 165 
 
 " Breathe not a word to Yusuf or our lord the 
 Pasha. Deny by Allah that thou sawest anything. 
 If not, the afrit which we have with pains extracted 
 will return and kill thee." 
 
 In her weak state of mind, oppressed with dreadful 
 and disgusting images, Barakah believed the words 
 and shuddered. She was ill for weeks.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 DURING the heat of summer, part of the harim, con- 
 sisting of the ladies Barakah and Fitnah, with their 
 children and attendants, stayed at a farm belonging 
 to the Pasha, on the banks of the Nile, near Benha. 
 The journey thither was performed on donkeys in a 
 long procession with a eunuch at its head and tail, 
 a eunuch boy leading the donkey of each lady, that 
 she might have freedom to hold up her sunshade and 
 munch nuts and sweetstuff. The slave-girls, some 
 of them, rode two together; they waxed hilarious, 
 exchanging jests with all who passed them on the 
 dyke. Their going raised a goodly cloud of dust. 
 The house to which they went was large and formal, 
 none too clean, though very sparsely furnished. 
 Behind it was a filthy yard hemmed in by hovels, 
 where dwelt the fellahm who worked the farm. Be- 
 fore it was a garden of fruit trees, and beyond that 
 a plantation of young date-palms. There was also 
 a big tree beside a water-wheel, where the ladies took 
 their pleasure in the shade. The land was abso- 
 lutely flat in all directions, but diversified in hue by 
 divers crops, broken here and there by clumps of 
 trees and squat mud villages. 
 
 Here manners were relaxed; for all the peas- 
 166
 
 VEILED WOMEN 167 
 
 ant women went unveiled, and their example made 
 the slaves less strict than in the city. The lady 
 Fitnah, being of the country, took delight in talk- 
 ing with the villagers, both men and women, and 
 thus, though most correct in her apparel, set the 
 fashion of unbending. Yusuf, who had now a Gov- 
 ernment appointment, and the Pasha came to see 
 them when they had the leisure; and Ghandur also 
 travelled down to see his wife. 
 
 To please the lady Fitnah, Barakah gave French 
 and English lessons to the children in the mornings 
 under the great tree, when many of the servants also 
 gathered round and tried to learn. She was begged 
 to be particularly strict with Hamdi, whom the lady 
 Fitnah seemed to think the soul of wickedness, as 
 indeed did everybody else, making his life a burden 
 with perpetual scolding. 
 
 This boy, her husband's younger brother, was at- 
 tached to Barakah as the only one who never shook 
 him by the neck or cursed him. He told her all his 
 woes, and brought her offerings of curious things he 
 found in his illicit rambles. He was always stray- 
 ing, though with no worse object, he asserted, than 
 the wish to be alone. His lady mother called him 
 " stupid Turk," vowing that he was all his father's 
 child, and she herself had neither part nor lot in him ; 
 though Hamdi was the true Egyptian adolescent, 
 still but half awake, a slave to every breeze, to every 
 odour, and fascinated by the sight of gleaming 
 objects. He would sit still for hours in contempla-
 
 168 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 tion of a sunlit blade of grass ; at other times he 
 would walk miles, drawn on invisibly, with great 
 brown eyes which seemed to harbour visions. Bara- 
 kah found him gentle and obedient. In truth, his 
 only wickedness that she could see consisted in re- 
 sentment of shrill interruptions. At such times he 
 would battle blindly with assailants, cursing them, 
 and crying out, in his despair: 
 
 " Am I not a man full-grown ? Do I not sleep in 
 the selamlik? Then let me be, or it shall be the 
 worse for you, by Allah ! " 
 
 "A man full-grown, thou sayest?" screamed the 
 lady Fitnah one evening when he came home soaked 
 in mud from head to foot. " Listen, O child of dogs, 
 O malefactor! Knowest thou what I shall do on our 
 return to town. I shall marry thee at once to 
 Na'imah, thy uncle's child. Thy clothes are in a 
 filthy state, thy tassel gone. Thou hast been 
 sprawling in some ditch, O piggish boy! By the 
 Prophet, I shall do as I have said. Sure, matri- 
 mony is the only cure for one like thee. Thou shalt 
 wed Na'imah." 
 
 " Allah forbid ! " exclaimed the lad with fervour ; 
 whereat the ladies and the servants burst out laugh- 
 ing; for Na'imah, Leylah Khanum's youngest 
 daughter, had been Hamdi's chief tormentor there 
 at home, disturbing his still dreams with impish glee, 
 and quick to vanish. 
 
 " Is it not cruel thus to hound me? " the unlucky 
 boy asked Barakah, " I do no wrong ; they inter-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 169 
 
 fere with me. And now my mother threatens to 
 unite me to the most hateful daughter of a dog that 
 ever yelped and bit." 
 
 The month of Ramadan came on them in their 
 country life; and the long hours of heat without a 
 bite or sup made everybody irritable except Barakah 
 and the wife of Ghandur, who were both exempt from 
 fasting the former as an invalid, the latter as a 
 nursing-mother. The slave-girls lost their usual de- 
 light in birds and greenery. A gun fired in the dis- 
 tant market-town announced the moment of release 
 in the first bloom of night; but the party failed to 
 hear it sometimes, and looked out for the lighting of 
 the lamps around a village mosque across the plain. 
 At once arose vast sighs of praise to Allah; ciga- 
 rettes, prepared in readiness, were seized and lighted ; 
 water was handed round and food set out. 
 
 It was at that blest hour upon a certain evening 
 of the sacred month that a rapturous surprise befell 
 the party. A little cavalcade was seen approaching 
 on the dyke. It consisted of two donkeys and a 
 baggage mule. A woman sat up on the foremost 
 donkey ; on the second rode two children, boy and 
 girl ; while the mule was led by a black-bearded, tur- 
 baned man of noble presence. The ladies, sitting in 
 the garden, peered, then shouted: 
 
 "Tahir! It is Tahir! Tahir, the great singer! 
 O most blessed day! Enter, O son of honour! 
 Deign to favour us ! " 
 
 Learning that the master of the house was absent,
 
 170 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Tahir would not enter, but sought a lodging in the 
 hovels of the fellahin, whither a rich meal was sent 
 to him. But after supper he came up into the gar- 
 den with his lute, followed timidly by all the popula- 
 tion of the hamlet ; and his wife and children stole 
 into the room where all the women sat with windows 
 open, looking forward to the concert. Once more 
 his little daughter drew to Barakah, and, having 
 kissed her hand, sat down and leaned against her. 
 " I love thee," she explained, with a soft look ; and 
 then with a wide yawn exclaimed : " I am so tired ! " 
 Barakah put her arm about her, and the child seemed 
 happy. She did not go to sleep this time, however, 
 but lay still, fondling her protector's hand, and 
 gazing up at the great stars. 
 
 " See, what a man he is ! " exclaimed the Galla 
 slave, Fatumah, her hand upon the shoulder of her 
 mistress, all respect forgotten in intense excitement. 
 " He does not even stay to tune his lute. All that 
 is for the common singers. He is much above it. 
 By Allah, he would sing to a dog's howl and make 
 it musical." 
 
 One twang of the lute, and then the magic voice 
 arose from out the shadow of the trees. It gave 
 a living spirit to the starlight, a soul to all the nights 
 that ever were or would be. It seemed illumination, 
 yet was all of mystery ; it gave the listener a sense of 
 floating disembodied. 
 
 Once, when Tahir paused to rest, the voice of
 
 VEILED WOMEN 171 
 
 Hamdi was heard in the garden, begging for leave 
 to hold his lute and play it. 
 
 " That boy again ! Cut short his life ! " cried 
 Fitnah Khanum. " Devoid of manners as of sensi- 
 bility. Remove him quickly ! " 
 
 But Tahir answered pleasantly : " Here, O my 
 son! Take it and play for me. Observe the meas- 
 ure. Strike loudly in the pauses, softly while I 
 sing." And Fatumah, quite beside herself, ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 " Behold the man he is ! He can dispense with 
 all things. That which would ruin the perform- 
 ance of another singer is a joy to him." 
 
 Hamdi acquitted himself fairly well of the task 
 of accompaniment and won a word of praise from 
 Tahir, which so moved him that when the singer was 
 departing the next morning early, he stole out to 
 him, and, looking round to ascertain that he was 
 heard of none save Barakah, entreated: 
 
 " Take me with thee, O my uncle. Instruct me, 
 let me play for thee for ever. This girl, thy 
 daughter, this little sugar-plum, shall be my bride. 
 Then we can all live happily together." 
 
 " The honour is too high for us, O my small 
 lord ! " the singer answered, with his charming smile. 
 " Thy lot in life is better far, in sh' Allah, than that 
 of us poor players." 
 
 " But they say that thou canst earn a hundred 
 pounds a night."
 
 172 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " Seldom as much as that, beloved. And my 
 living is at Allah's pleasure. It is a gift from Him, 
 to whom be praise. Come to me four years hence, 
 and we will think about it." 
 
 With a dignified salute he started off; the chil- 
 dren, on their donkey, waved their hands and 
 screamed farewell. Hamdi was left standing dis- 
 appointed and a trifle injured. 
 
 " O my misfortune ! " he exclaimed to Barakah. 
 " I would have given my right hand to go with him. 
 Like that I could escape from persecution and ac- 
 cursed Na'imah, and dwell for ever in the sound of 
 music which transports my soul. Allah is great- 
 est!" 
 
 And he heaved a mighty sigh. 
 
 When the month of fasting ended, there were mild 
 rejoicings. The fellahin fired guns and let off fire- 
 works. The women smoked too much and over-ate 
 themselves, and felt aggrieved at being far from 
 Cairo, where the means of satisfaction were more 
 varied and abundant. 
 
 Then Yusuf and the Pasha came and stayed a 
 week ; delighted, coming fresh to it, with the unoccu- 
 pied existence over which the others had begun to 
 yawn. At the end of the week they all returned to 
 Cairo, the procession of the ladies keeping half a 
 mile behind their lords. The first view of the citadel 
 on one hand, the pyramids of Gizah on the other, 
 called forth thankful shouts. The coloured, noisy 
 streets, the odours sweet and foul, the atmosphere of
 
 VEILED WOMEN 173 
 
 teeming life, excited Barakah. She joined in excla- 
 mations of delight. 
 
 While she gazed with strange eyes at her gilded 
 salon, superintending the disposal of her baggage, 
 a letter was presented to her by Fatumah. It had 
 been given to the latter that same minute by Saw- 
 wab the eunuch, who had had it in safe keeping for 
 two months. It was from Mrs. Cameron. 
 
 Barakah, frowning, opened it and read: 
 
 " It grieves me much to learn that you have been 
 seriously ill. I heard of this quite by accident from 
 Doctor Torranelli, whom I chanced to meet at a 
 friend's house. In some anxiety, I tried to call 
 upon you yesterday, but learnt that you are absent 
 in the country. I trust that the dear baby flour- 
 ishes. He must be a great comfort and delight to 
 you. Please never forget that I am your sincere 
 friend." 
 
 With an exclamation of annoyance, she tore up 
 the note.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE idea of seeing Mrs. Cameron again was quite 
 intolerable. She therefore wrote that lady a brief 
 note, an asp for venom, designed to terminate ac- 
 quaintance and to rankle, and plunged into the 
 harim pleasures with sensations of defiance. 
 
 One morning, as she lounged upon her cushioned 
 window-seat, smoking her narghileh and listening to 
 the voices wafted with the sunlight through her 
 lattice, Fatumah came and with a grin announced 
 that Hamdi Bey desired an audience of her Honour. 
 She gave the word, and in came Hamdi, knuckling 
 his two eyes. 
 
 " O day of pitch ! " he cried. " O vile nefarious 
 day! O my beloved sister, hide me, save me! My 
 father has enforced my mother's harsh command. I 
 am to be married to-day to that unholy child of dogs 
 against my will. I wished to wait a thousand 
 years. Ghandur is waiting at this minute to con- 
 duct me to the bath." 
 
 As if in confirmation of his words, the voice of 
 Ghandur shouted in the street without : " Make 
 haste, O Hamdi ! Lo, the sun is high ! The shadow 
 is already on the stone thou fixedst for a limit when 
 I let thee enter." 
 
 174
 
 VEILED WOMEN 175 
 
 "Thou hearest," snuffled Hamdi, "how they 
 hound me? He has my wedding garments in a 
 bundle O my hatred ! Guests have been bidden 
 may their fathers perish ! Go to my mother 
 (she will hear thee) ; plead that I may be allowed 
 a few months' respite. It is Na'imah who, through 
 her mother, hastens on the match. She would de- 
 stroy my new-found freedom and torment me." 
 
 Barakah could not help laughing, though she 
 uttered words of comfort. Na'imah was a very 
 pretty girl, she pointed out, and not ill-natured, 
 though a great coquette. He would have none of it, 
 but shook his head with ominous frowns. 
 
 " I hate her ! " he declared. " And knowest thou? 
 I have a mind to drown myself this morning at the 
 bath." 
 
 Then, as Ghandur's calls became insistent, he left 
 the room with slow, reluctant steps. 
 
 The wedding was a small affair, the parties being 
 children of one house, and their betrothal (which 
 is legal marriage) having taken place in infancy. 
 The bride, enthroned, showed none of the reluctance 
 felt by Hamdi. A bright-eyed and determined little 
 maiden, she was wreathed in smiles ; and when Bara- 
 kah inquired if she were truly happy, replied, " The 
 praise to Allah ! " with decision. 
 
 Next day the house was full of smothered laughter. 
 Hamdi was completely changed. He and his bride 
 were now the fondest pair. The lady Fitnah, who 
 had always held that matrimony was a panacea for
 
 176 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 the crotchets of young people, male and female, ren- 
 dered praise where praise was due. For many days, 
 through shame, the bridegroom hid from Barakah, 
 and from every one else to whom he had proclaimed 
 his dread of marriage. 
 
 When she told Gulbeyzah of the case as of a kind 
 of miracle, the Circassian answered: 
 
 " I perceive no cause for wonder. The bride- 
 groom had not thought of her before in that rela- 
 tion, had not truly known her that is all. Love 
 is a blessing that brings gratitude as surely as the 
 Nile makes plants to grow." 
 
 Gulbeyzah and Bedr-ul-Budur nay, all her 
 friends viewed love, apart from any individual 
 man, as a material boon. Bred up to it and ripened 
 for it cunningly, they were ready to adore the man 
 who gave it, however unattractive from a European 
 standpoint. This view of love, when realized, ex- 
 plained to Barakah the happiness which every girl 
 of her acquaintance seemed to find in marriage, even 
 where, as in Gulbeyzah's case, the husband was a 
 greybeard thrice her age. Those who possessed it 
 were content and virtuous. In those who had it not, 
 or were deprived of it, all amorous crime was 
 reckoned pardonable. 
 
 Gulbeyzah and Bedr-ul-Budur explained all this 
 to Barakah in thrilling tones, as if they uttered 
 truths divine. 
 
 " Behold the wisdom of our Faith," they said, 
 " which grants to every woman this delight in secret.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 177 
 
 Women can never truly be the friends of men; their 
 soul is different. If thrown with men for long, they 
 feel fatigue. They ask of men one thing the gift 
 of love. Here we consort with women, true com- 
 panions, all day long; and in the night the bride- 
 groom comes, and we are blest. Is not this better 
 than the way of Europe, which sets at nought appar- 
 ent truths as that most men love more than one 
 of us, whereas most women need but love itself, the 
 hope of children? " 
 
 That was one of the occasions when Barakah 
 would have given anything to have an English- 
 woman present, and to watch her face. Another 
 came a few days later when she called upon 
 Gulbeyzah. Alighting from her carriage at the 
 palace door, she saw a baby's coffin being carried 
 out, and thought at once of turning home again. 
 But already smiling eunuchs stood before her bidding 
 welcome, beseeching her to deign to follow them to 
 the haramlik. Gulbeyzah met her with a kiss on 
 either cheek. 
 
 " Come, help us to console Nasibah," she ex- 
 claimed. " Her baby died this night. She is dis- 
 tracted." 
 
 She drew her friend into a chamber where the 
 childless mother lay, face downward, moaning, while 
 the others tried to soothe her. 
 
 " It is no matter," was the burden of their con- 
 solations. " It is not as if thou wert left altogether 
 desolate. Are we not one, we four? Thou hast two
 
 178 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 children left, since ours are thine, and in a day or 
 two Gulbeyzah will present thee with a third, in sh' 
 Allah!" 
 
 " In sh' Allah ! " cried Gulbeyzah. " And it shall 
 be thine entirely. Directly it is born it shall be sent 
 to thee to nurse. I will forget it. And when it is 
 thy turn again, thou wilt repay me. Is not that a 
 good idea? " 
 
 Oh that English people, who regard polygamy as 
 something dreadful, could have witnessed that small 
 scene! The wish, escaping Barakah at unawares, 
 begot a heartache, as she realised that all she saw 
 and heard for their instruction was thwarted of its 
 natural vent for evermore. 
 
 She told herself that she was happy in this life; 
 and so she was upon the surface, where she kept her 
 thoughts, not daring to pry down into the depths. 
 In the early days she had desired more knowledge 
 of the Muslim faith, and a woman learned in religion 
 had been hired to teach her. But the fury of thai- 
 faith, the scathing nature of its truths, appalled her, 
 awaking recollections of a creed more sentimental, 
 with distressing doubts. She very soon gave up her 
 lessons, closed the eyes of her intelligence, and reso- 
 lutely sought her pleasure in the passing hour. 
 
 Still there were moments when vague fears op- 
 pressed her. When, in the third year of her mar- 
 riage, she brought forth a still-born child, frightful 
 abysses seemed to yawn around her, and for days 
 she was afflicted with a kind of nightmare of misgiv-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 179 
 
 ing, derived from recollection of the Zar and other 
 horrors. 
 
 The Eastern ladies were so calm and strong com- 
 pared with her; they flinched at nothing except im- 
 propriety. The slaughter of a thousand sheep at 
 Curban Bairam, turning the kitchen court into a 
 shambles, caused them no disgust. It was ordained 
 of God, they told her, and it fed the poor. They 
 had no horror of disease or death or filthy persons, 
 and, though most cleanly, looked on vermin philo- 
 sophically. The Turks and the Circassians, with 
 their grand ideals, appeared more dreadful than the 
 Africans, whose faith was childlike. Barakah pre- 
 ferred the latter. Her pleasure was in feasts and 
 little outings, in story-tellers, dancers, and musicians 
 who beguile the time ; her only rapture was in adora- 
 tion of her small Muhammed. 
 
 Her hidden yearnings and beliefs clung round the 
 boy. She dwelt in longing for the days when he 
 should be her friend. He was her hope, the product 
 of both parts of her divided life ; giving it sense and 
 sequence, and, in the end perhaps, if Allah willed, 
 consistency. She dreamt of a great future for him, 
 to astonish Europe. But in the meanwhile, being 
 sometimes dull, she felt the need of an intelligent, 
 discreet companion.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 ON the recurrence of certain anniversaries, at the 
 two Bairams and in the month of Ragab, all Muslim 
 Cairo left the city of the living for the cities of the 
 dead adjoining it upon the east and south. Mothers 
 of sorrow like Murjanah Khanum, whose heart was 
 with her children in the grave, inhabited the mausole- 
 ums for a week or more; but the majority performed 
 a one-day visit. 
 
 Blue night alive with stars was at her lattice when 
 Barakah was softly roused by her attendants and 
 arrayed in proper garb. She found Leylah Kha- 
 num and her daughters waiting for her by the 
 mabeyn screen, where the eunuch had a heap of roses 
 and of henna-flowers to give them, as well as branches 
 of palm and sweet basil. With these they made 
 their way out to the carriage. 
 
 The principal streets were thronged with people 
 going in the same direction : men in clean robes, who 
 yawned, still half asleep; women, black-shrouded, 
 bearing palm-branches, with trays of eatables upon 
 their heads ; small girls in tinselled gauze of divers 
 colours, and boys in stiff new clothing all with 
 earnest faces, pressing out towards the cemeteries. 
 Barakah kept peeping through the shutter at the 
 
 180
 
 VEILED WOMEN 181 
 
 solemn crowd, to which the fitful gleam of swinging 
 lanterns added weirdness. The concourse gave forth 
 a dull clatter, above which was heard the rumble of 
 the carriage wheels upon the stones, the shouts the 
 coachman raised to clear a way. Then suddenly all 
 noise of going ceased, although their wheels still 
 rolled and the besetting throng was even denser than 
 before. They were on sand. The people murmured 
 like a shell. The desert hill rose imminent against 
 the stars. On all sides spread a wilderness of hum- 
 ble graves, each with its family group encamped be- 
 side the headstone. Then came a steep incline, up 
 which the horses struggled under whip and cursing; 
 and lo! they were once more in city streets. On 
 every hand rose shadowy buildings, domes, and min- 
 arets. A swarm of beggars went from door to door 
 with sacks and trays collecting doles of food. 
 
 Alighting at the gate of a large mosque-like build- 
 ing, Barakah and her companions were conducted 
 through a courtyard to the women's quarters. Fit- 
 nah and Murjanah, who had spent the night there 
 with attendants, made them welcome; after which 
 they paid a visit to the mausoleum proper, or the 
 women's side of it for the house of death itself 
 was subdivided by a harim screen. Here, in a gloom 
 made spectral by the hanging lamps, women of re- 
 pute for sanctity, hired mourners, were reciting the 
 Goran, and through the screen some male professors 
 could be heard performing the same office in strong 
 nasal tones. The visitors bestowed their flowers and
 
 182 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 bits of palm among the graves, and, having said 
 some prayers, returned to the apartment, where 
 preparations for a feast were being made. 
 
 Already the muezzin's chant announced the dawn. 
 Murjanah Khanum was at her devotions on a corner 
 of the dais. The other ladies, who deemed prayer 
 the man's affair, helped in the work of setting out 
 the breakfast. While this was going on, a woman 
 and three children rushed in from the twilight court, 
 and with loud blessings began kissing hands. 
 
 " It is the wife and children of the guardian of 
 this place, who makes the graves," Na'imah, her 
 nearest neighbour, informed Barakah. " They come 
 for their accustomed gifts of food and raiment. 
 See, Fitnah Khanum is just going to bestow them 
 in the name of all of us." 
 
 A minute later the grave-digger's wife and chil- 
 dren were at Barakah kissing her hand repeatedly 
 and crying, " May it be many a year ere we receive 
 thee here, O queen of charms." 
 
 The Englishwoman shivered at this form of com- 
 pliment; and then a strange old woman, who had 
 been observing her, sidled across the room and squat- 
 ted at her feet. 
 
 " O Umm ed-Dahak, welcome ! " exclaimed Na'i- 
 mah. " Where hast thou been this long while, that 
 we have not seen, thee? There has been no fun at 
 all in life without thee. How is thy health? What 
 new jests dost thou bring us?" 
 
 But the old woman had not come, it seemed, to
 
 VEILED WOMEN 18S 
 
 talk to Na'imah; for, replying to these questions in 
 the briefest manner possible, she addressed herself to 
 Barakah in coaxing whispers. 
 
 "Art thou not happy, O my pearl? I could see 
 from over there that something ailed thee. Is it the 
 thought of death, the air of tombs? The spectacle 
 of graves should rather cheer the living. Give praise 
 to God that thou art still alive; enjoy existence! 
 Allah is merciful! It is certain that He has made 
 provision for our sex hereafter a finer paradise 
 than that of men, in sh' Allah! Ha, ha! What 
 faces, thinkest thou, the men would wear if they knew 
 we had heavenly youths for our enjoyment, in our 
 place apart? By Allah, it would spoil their pleas- 
 ure in the black-eyed maids ! I see them sulking even 
 in the home of bliss. . . . The air is chill thus early ; 
 the end of night is always a sad hour. A delicate 
 soft flower like thee is dashed by it. Come, let me 
 talk to warm thee. I am called the Mother of 
 Laughter, thou hast heard ! . . . 
 
 " Knowest thou what my daughter said in her soul 
 when first her spouse unveiled her? She said (and 
 be the saying far from thee), the while she stood 
 with eyes downcast and bosom rising, falling, " May 
 Allah strike me blind this minute if I am half so in- 
 nocent as thou art, O my knowing lord ! ' And she 
 managed him, I can assure thee. Ah, she fooled 
 him perfectly exclaiming ever at his wisdom, bow- 
 ing to his lightest word. It is thus we subtle ones 
 beguile the world the great strong simpleton !
 
 184 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 never opposing, lest he knock us down. By Allah, 
 I must ask thy pardon for thus prattling; but ladies 
 condescend to find my talk amusing. I can recount 
 the origin of all that is, being most learned in re- 
 ligious matters. If I chose, I could be howling with 
 those cats in there," she nodded towards the hired 
 performers in the tomb, " but they are hypocrites 
 and gloomy. I love merriment. It has long been 
 my desire to meet a foreign lady, to whom I might 
 impart my knowledge of this land. The Franks 
 have great intelligence, and would admire my lore. 
 All the stories of the harim I can teach thee. . . . 
 
 " Thou knowest the three wives of Ali Bey El 
 Halebi. The red-haired one the former slave 
 was killed last night. I had it but an hour ago 
 from a sure source. Her sin, though great, was par- 
 donable, Allah knows. Her husband had neglected 
 her disgracefully ; the fact is known. She turned 
 for comfort to a street musician. She lost her wit, 
 it seemed, and made confession. I could have saved 
 her, with the help of Allah, had she come to me. 
 The eunuchs held her so and, click ! her neck was 
 severed. Her corpse is floating down the Nile, dis- 
 membered or buried in the garden Allah knows ! 
 Ah ! I could keep thee interested for a year together." 
 
 The old creature's flattery, more subtle in the tone 
 and manner than the words convey, was irresistible; 
 her twinkling eyes and ever shifting wrinkles aroused 
 the Englishwoman's sense of humour, which had long 
 been dormant.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 185 
 
 " Praise be to Allah, thou art better ! " smiled the 
 crone. 
 
 The sun had risen now; the lamps were useless; 
 the city of the dead was blushing like the rose ; the 
 chanting of the readers in the tomb had lost its sad- 
 ness. Barakah was staring at the strange old 
 woman's face, now plainly visible. Where had she 
 known it? Feature for feature, it resembled one 
 which had been long imprinted in her memory. 
 Umm ed-Dahak grinned when she became aware of 
 this perplexity. With a very roguish look for one 
 so old, she laid her cheek upon her open palm and 
 whispered, " Yusuf ! Come ! " It was the same old 
 creature who, luring the future bride of Yusuf from 
 her chamber in Muhammad Pasha's house, had been 
 seized and beaten by the eunuchs in the hall, and 
 never seen again until this day. 
 
 " Rememberest thou ? " she slyly asked. " Allah 
 witness, I was tempted with a bribe. Young men 
 are devils ! Never ask me to explain. I cannot bear 
 to be reminded of it, may Our Lord forgive me ! We 
 are all weak creatures and succumb occasionally ; but 
 Fitnah Khanum will assure thee I am to be trusted." 
 
 With that and a most friendly smile, she edged 
 away, repairing straight to Fitnah Khanum, with 
 whom she held some animated conversation in low 
 tones. The lady, at her instance, shortly came 
 across to Barakah and whispered: 
 
 " That old woman seeks thy patronage. I my- 
 self have found her useful and obliging. To thee,
 
 186 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 a foreigner, she could afford much help. Thou 
 needest some one. Umm ed-Dahak ii the best I 
 know." 
 
 "Umm ed-Dahak!" cried out Na'imah. "Why 
 there is no creature in the world to match her for 
 facetiousness. She was the rapture of our life as 
 children. Nobody could be dull or sad with Umrn 
 ed-Dahak. She is like a monkey and a clever serv- 
 ant and a mother all in one ! " 
 
 This joyful cry was overheard by Leylah Khanum, 
 who frowned upon her daughter and rebuked her 
 sharply. In that place conversation must be held 
 in whispers and only ritual words pronounced aloud. 
 The party breakfasted in solemn silence, to the 
 sound of chanting from the tomb. But the aged 
 Mother of Laughter smiled and nodded even 
 winked at Barakah whenever their eyes met, 
 which was not seldom; and the Englishwoman had 
 a new sensation of relief and sympathy. At last she 
 had found somebody who understood her.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 UPON the morrow Barakah had quite forgotten the 
 old woman ; she was lounging on a sofa, smoking 
 after breakfast, watching the slave-girls dress 
 Muhammad, when Umm ed-Dahak stole in bare- 
 foot, making reverence. The crone sank down be- 
 fore her as of right, and kissing her feet, asked how 
 she did and praised her loveliness. Then, looking 
 at the infant, she exclaimed in natural tones, " Ma 
 sh'Allah! May Our Lord preserve him in all times 
 and places ! " and straightway began making baby 
 noises. 
 
 Barakah thought the moment opportune for get- 
 ting at the secret of that incident which teased her 
 memory. But Umm ed-Dahak, though she an- 
 swered volubly, made no disclosure. Indeed, as Bar- 
 akah soon learnt, that seeming reckless chatterer was 
 in the habit of imparting only what she chose to tell. 
 It was manifest that half her compliments were in- 
 sincere, nor did she take the slightest trouble to dis- 
 guise the fact ; but in the intervals of soporific fiction 
 and pure blandishment she spoke of things worth 
 knowing in a tone of frank good-will. She knew the 
 why and how of every custom, the stories giving rise 
 to every proverb, and was so acute a judge of human 
 
 187
 
 188 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 character that her gossip had the flavour of an in- 
 tellectual game. Her wiles, it seemed, were worn to 
 show her cleverness, or cynically, to travesty arts 
 which flourish in this transitory world. 
 
 She became a member of the household, but with 
 privileges. Barakah was the sultan, she the grand 
 vizier, it was agreed. No monarch ever had a more 
 delightful minister. She made the slave-girls more 
 attentive to their mistress, whose comfort she in- 
 creased in a variety of ways. She knew where to lay 
 her hands upon the leading story-tellers and musi- 
 cians, and was herself the most accomplished female 
 mountebank at that time living. She soon learnt 
 every mood of her protectress, and its antidote. 
 The latest scandal dwelt at her tongue's tip. 
 
 The whole harim knew Umm ed-Dahak as a joker. 
 Slaves from outside were always coining pretexts to 
 enter the apartment, just to look at her, and the more 
 frivolous among the ladies came to hear her stories. 
 
 " I am for them a comical performance, not a 
 child of Adam," she told Barakah. " How different 
 from thy kindness, O my sovereign lady! Thy 
 gracious condescension feeds and clothes me." 
 
 Therewith she kissed the hand of Barakah, who 
 was affected. By such small means did she confirm 
 her sway. 
 
 Her intelligence, her laughing view of life, were 
 stimulating, and prevented Barakah from brooding 
 upon hopeless problems.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 189 
 
 Without attempting to fatigue her mind in vain 
 attempts to grasp the universe as Europeans do, 
 inviting pessimism this old woman took her por- 
 tion as it came, with relish and a very searching 
 scrutiny. She likened herself sometimes to a fisher 
 of the Nile, who all his life frequents one reach alone. 
 He knows the currents and the mud-banks, marks the 
 winds, and, without preoccupation with the river's 
 source or outlet, is cunning in the art of bringing 
 fish to land. The soul of her philosophy was non- 
 resistance; her morality held all means lawful to 
 escape oppression. 
 
 " God is gracious and all-knowing," she would 
 shrug. " He gives to all His creatures, great and 
 small, the wherewithal to move in their appointed 
 element to birds wings, fins to fishes, guile to 
 women." 
 
 In her time, she admitted, many sins had soiled 
 her hands ; shameful employments had defiled her 
 countenance. They would be pardoned, being but 
 a means to live. She held, against the world's opin- 
 ion, that Allah is indulgent to the faults of women 
 and even has a secret fondness for them. Yet, with 
 her guile, she had an admiration for pure virtue, a 
 teardrop for true love, wherever found. And with 
 all her common sense and her acuteness she was su- 
 perstitious. As the fisher of the Nile, her chosen 
 image, wears an amulet and names the name of power 
 before he casts his net, so Umm ed-Dahak armed her-
 
 190 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 self against malignant influences. Her belief in 
 witchcraft, philtres, and all kinds of charms was 
 quite beyond the reach of argument. 
 
 The old woman never asked for any wages. She 
 took what food she wanted, helped herself to cig- 
 arettes, and called for a narghileh when the fancy 
 seized her. By the Pasha's order, in accordance 
 with a pious custom observed at that time in good 
 Muslim houses, eatables, such as meat and milk and 
 vegetables which might go bad, were not kept over- 
 night, the remainder of each day's provision being 
 given in the evening to the poor dependants. Of 
 this dole Umm ed-Dahak claimed her share. If she 
 required a garment or a gift of money, she did not 
 beg for it, but told some tortuous and lengthy story 
 which ended in a present as snakes end in tails. 
 When Barakah saw through the artifice, she was in 
 no way disconcerted. She merely smiled and praised 
 her quick intelligence. 
 
 " Her need is real, for she is poor," said Fitnah 
 Khanum, when Barakah remarked on the old woman's 
 foibles. " But she loves subtlety far more than com- 
 fort, and would refuse high monthly wages, to ob- 
 tain a lesser sum by stealth and coaxing, as occasion 
 offered. She has had much money given to her, to 
 my knowledge; but it is as dust to her. She is like 
 the clever fellow in the story, who, having earned 
 much money by his ingenuity, scrambled it among 
 the crowd; and in the end, when it was finished, 
 sighed, * O Allah, would that I had all the gold on
 
 VEILED WOMEN 191 
 
 earth to go on flinging it and see men fight like dogs 
 for its possession ! ' " 
 
 Fitnah, though she scolded the old woman, had 
 a liking for her company and waggish talk. And 
 Umm ed-Dahak, being very diplomatic, paid her 
 court. Indeed, she flattered all the ladies of the 
 house with the assurance that she wished to be the 
 spokesman of their will with Barakah, and went to 
 them for orders every day. 
 
 The only person whom she feared was Yusuf Bey, 
 though she had known him from a child. At the 
 first hint of his approach she fled the house. In vain 
 did Barakah assure her he had no objection to her 
 presence nay, had said more than once that he 
 would like to see her. The old creature smiled and 
 wriggled, " May our Lord preserve him ! " but fled 
 no less. It all came of her desire for surreptitious- 
 ness. She would not have felt well in a harim of 
 which the lord approved of her. 
 
 Contentment grew in Barakah from day to day, 
 and as the months wore on she lost the wish to go 
 abroad. The young Muhammad could now run 
 about, although he sometimes tumbled and set up 
 a howl. He had been taught to testify to his re- 
 ligion in a piping voice and screamed at visitors, 
 " There is no God but God. Muhammad is the 
 apostle of God " ; for which they blessed him. He 
 had also learnt to curse the infidels ferociously. A 
 turbulent and wilful child, his mother and old Umm 
 ed-Dahak thought him perfect. They never tired
 
 192 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 of watching him torment the slave-girls. " Ma 
 sh'Allah ! " the Mother of Laughter would croak 
 rapturously. " A blusterer, by the Most High ! A 
 boy with all the signs of manhood on him ! In 
 sh'Allah, he will live to bully grown-up men ! " 
 
 Occasionally Barakah paid visits as in duty bound ; 
 but she much preferred to stay indoors, to smoke and 
 dream and talk with Umm ed-Dahak. Her hus- 
 band, by his father's influence, obtained a post of 
 some importance, necessitating their removal shortly 
 to a proper house, with a selamlik of its own where 
 he could see his courtiers. Barakah looked forward 
 to the change with high indifference, though Umm 
 ed-Dahak strove to waken her enthusiasm, crying: 
 
 " Thou wilt now have eunuchs and a carriage of 
 thy very own. In sh'Allah, Yusuf Bey will go on 
 rising till thy pomp excels the dignity of mighty 
 queens." 
 
 Her life could hardly be more easy, she considered ; 
 she was quite content. The Pasha's ladies would be 
 grieved to lose her, and she would feel quite lost apart 
 from them. She thought they all respected and ad- 
 mired her. 
 
 It was therefore a great shock to her when one 
 afternoon Murjanah Khanum sent for her and read 
 her a kind lecture on her way of life. 
 
 " My pearl," she said, " I am the head of this 
 harim and in some sort responsible for all its mem- 
 bers. I do not see a slave degenerating without en- 
 deavouring to stop the process by a word of warning.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 193 
 
 How much greater is my duty towards a near rela- 
 tion ! My flower, thou art an Englishwoman and we 
 Turks of Europe and of Asia welcomed thee to El 
 Islam as our own sister. We looked to thee for 
 force of character, for the light of education, for re- 
 finement. What has happened, on the contrary? 
 Thou shunnest us for boon companions, persons of 
 the country, who, however estimable, are inferior. 
 Aminah Khanum yesterday complained that thou art 
 growing a fellahah both in speech and conduct. I 
 do not hold with her, I only tell thee what she said 
 a thing I cannot bear to hear of my dear daughter. 
 My child, I speak in tenderness. Give thought to 
 higher things our holy Faith, the dignity of life 
 and spend not all thy time in mere frivolity. 
 Keep that old woman in her place; I say not shun 
 her, since she is amusing. Frequent good houses, 
 study holy books. To spend one's whole life in the 
 hot room of the bath is not existence." 
 
 Barakah was deeply hurt. To have her harmless 
 pleasures so severely criticised was as cruel as to 
 see a flower destroyed by hail. She could not take 
 the lofty standpoint of the Turkish lady. Had she 
 done so, viewing life in all its horror, she would have 
 gone mad. How could she bear to look upon her- 
 self, the renegade? She was now glad that she was 
 soon to leave that hateful house. 
 
 When she told Umm ed-Dahak of her grief, ex- 
 pecting sympathy, the latter smiled and said: 
 
 " The right is with her. We must not neglect the
 
 194 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 things divine. I will myself instruct thee in them, 
 having some small learning. In sh' Allah, I will 
 teach thee to endure those thoughts which now ap- 
 pal thee." 
 
 Instruction of that kind was needed two days later, 
 when Barakah was driven to her new abode. As she 
 alighted from her carriage at the door, some men in 
 waiting cut the throat of a live buffalo by way of 
 compliment. Blood spurted in her path across the 
 threshold.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 " BLOOD," explained Umm ed-Dahak, " is but the 
 juice of living creatures. Had they crushed a fruit 
 before thee, would thy Grace have shrunk or fainted? 
 Those servants sacrificed a thing of value in thy 
 name and scattered blood upon the threshold to 
 bring thee good luck. The flesh of the victim was 
 distributed among the needy, as an almsdeed to the 
 credit of the house of Yusuf Bey. There are those 
 among the learned who declare such practices to be 
 against religion. Allah knows ! Blood is the life 
 of creatures, and a precious offering; and our tradi- 
 tions say that it is wise to shed it upon great occa- 
 sions. Do but apply thy mind, and thou shalt learn 
 to view such sacrifices with a sort of pleasure. It is 
 true, by Allah! There is a thrill peculiar to the 
 sight of blood." 
 
 To this and many kindred exhortations Barakah 
 replied with shudders. She was downright ill. At 
 last, perceiving her repugnance to be quite invinci- 
 ble, the old woman resigned that branch of her in- 
 struction to the Most High, and once more proffered 
 only what she knew would please her. Observing, 
 also, her disgust at the sight of blind, diseased, or 
 crippled persons, numbers of whom frequented the 
 
 195
 
 196 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 harim in quest of alms, she prevented such from en- 
 tering her presence. 
 
 To gain some credit with Murjanah Khanum, 
 Umm ed-Dahak went and told her, " My sweet lady 
 is too frail. The weakness of the infidels still clings 
 to her. She cannot put her trust in God as we do, 
 but is harassed by the thought of pain and illness. I 
 have tried in vain to win her to a better mind." 
 
 " Leave that to Allah ! " was the saint's reply. 
 " All that I ask of her is to frequent her equals, 
 and not seclude herself in low frivolity." 
 
 " To hear is to obey," bowed Umm ed-Dahak. 
 
 She forthwith set to work to school her mistress in 
 all the courtesies expected of a noble lady. She 
 coached her for her visits, teaching her the names 
 of all the male relations, after whom it was the cus- 
 tom to inquire although she could not know them, 
 together with the private history of each lady of the 
 house. 
 
 With such a commentator at her elbow, Barakah 
 found amusement in her social duties. Aminah 
 Khanum was as kind to her as ever, but made no 
 secret of her disapproval of the life she led. 
 
 " I know," she said, " that thou must feel be- 
 wildered sometimes. Our life here is so different 
 from that of Europe. It is natural for one who has 
 left much behind to seek forgetfulness in little pleas- 
 ures. But why with vulgar natives of the country? 
 Why not with us, who are more civilised and have a 
 nobler view of El Islam? Thou art not the only
 
 VEILED WOMEN 197 
 
 European to be found among us. I have asked some 
 others here to meet thee, and rid thee of the sense of 
 loneliness, which must be dreadful." 
 
 She had in truth collected half a dozen other 
 European women who had married Muslims and as- 
 sumed the veil. But Barakah, instead of being 
 pleased to meet them, seemed annoyed. They came 
 from Italy and Southern Austria. To be ranked 
 with them aroused her English pride. When 
 Aminah Khanum asked why she disdained them, she 
 replied that they were women of the lowest class and 
 doubtful character. 
 
 " It is unlawful to say that," the princess scolded. 
 " Such scorn is not permitted here among us. A 
 woman is invested with her husband's honour. It is 
 a sin to cast up what she did before her marriage. 
 Thy boast is simply thou wast better guarded. 
 Praise God for that, but do not scorn those others ! " 
 
 Barakah loved them none the more for this re- 
 buke. 
 
 In her new dwelling she had three reception-rooms. 
 The gilt salon was kept for very ceremonious visitors. 
 Her intimates were welcomed in a large apartment 
 with cushioned dais and divans round the wall, where 
 she herself was wont to sit with Umm ed-Dahak, 
 though sometimes they would camp upon the house- 
 top under sunshades. 
 
 All kinds of suitors came to the selamlik to see 
 Yusuf ; and most of these brought presents, some of 
 which were left at the haramlik entrance to bespeak
 
 198 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 t 
 
 the intercession of the lady. Ghandur was made the 
 steward of the house; he and his wife, who still at- 
 tended on Muhammad, inhabiting a room close by. 
 Barakah was glad to hear his voice again. As a 
 relative by milk, he was allowed sometimes to kiss 
 her hand and raise his chant of honour in her pres- 
 ence. 
 
 The winter following her change of residence Bar- 
 akah was once more brought to bed. The whole 
 household had been praying for another boy: Mu- 
 hammad had been taught to lisp, " A boy, in 
 sh'Allah ! " every time he saw his mother. Umm 
 ed-Dahak had desired her mistress might produce 
 boys only, because, she said, some of the brood were 
 sure to die, and were all boys there was less likelihood 
 of being left with girls alone, like Leylah Khanum. 
 But a girl it proved to be. Muhammad shook his 
 little fist at the intruder, shouting, " Daughter of a 
 dog, who bade thee enter? " There was little joy 
 at her reception in the world, and that little raised 
 to cheer the mother's spirits. 
 
 " It is no matter," chuckled Umm ed-Dahak, 
 whose optimism triumphed over every obstacle. " A 
 girl comes not amiss ; she has her uses. Since some 
 are bound to die in early childhood, it is as well in 
 every family to have a few who can be spared. And 
 Yusuf Bey will thank thee for this gift. The fath- 
 ers always like to have a girl or two." 
 
 " Why should some die ? In sh'Allah, both of 
 mine will be preserved ! " wailed Barakah.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 199 
 
 " In sh' Allah ! Yet if all the children born were 
 to survive, there soon would not be room to move in 
 our great houses. For example, take the palace of 
 our lord the Pasha, thy good father. Let me see ! " 
 She sat in thought and counted on her fingers: 
 " Murjanah Khanum bore him twenty at the least 
 all dead ; Fitnah Khanum more than that say 
 thirty of whom six alive. The mother of Ali 
 she that was a slave ten at the least, three living. 
 Then there was another concubine . . ." 
 
 " Stop, stop ! It is not true ! It cannot be," 
 cried Barakah, with a hysteric laugh. 
 
 But Umm ed-Dahak answered, " True, wallahi. 
 What dismays thee? A woman's task is to produce. 
 We leave the rest to Allah." 
 
 And to console her hearer she went on to tell of 
 broods of thirty, even forty, reared successfully; 
 when Barakah's dismay was turned to laughter. 
 
 In her moments of depression she was haunted by 
 two terrors on her son's account. One was oph- 
 thalmia, a disease so prevalent in Egypt that half 
 the population was composed of blind and one-eyed 
 persons. The other was the plague, of which the 
 women told grim stories with a strange complacency. 
 Many of her friends had been through epidemics of 
 the pestilence and, by their own report, had known 
 no panic. It was a swift and cruel illness, by which 
 they had lost dear ones in despite of careful nursing ; 
 it was from Allah; no one's thinking could avert or 
 cure it. The horror the mere thought of it inspired
 
 200 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 in Barakah, her futile worry, filled them with a placid 
 wonder. 
 
 She had made up her mind that, if the plague 
 drew near, she would carry off her boy to Europe, 
 having no doubt but she could win consent from 
 Yusuf. But she said nothing of this resolution to 
 the women, knowing they would deem it godless. As 
 a preventative against ophthalmia, she bathed her 
 son's eyes with cold water twice a day, and gave or- 
 ders for the flies that settled on them to be brushed 
 away a thing the slaves would not have thought 
 of doing on their own initiative. 
 
 The plague did not come near her; and Muham- 
 mad's eyes continued bright and liquid under long 
 black lashes. An enemy, unfeared as unexpected, 
 struck her joy. 
 
 About the period when he was being weaned, Mu- 
 hammad had a serious illness. An Armenian doctor 
 was called on, who said, " It is the fever." At that 
 the women wailed and prayed to Allah. The foe was 
 too well known, the scourge of children. There was 
 no need to tell them what to do. 
 
 " It carries off a host of infants every year," said 
 Umm ed-Dahak. " But be not downcast, O be- 
 loved. God is great ! Many survive, and those who 
 do recover are free from its malignancy for ever- 
 more." 
 
 The malady was typhoid fever, or so like it that 
 Barakah could not detect the slightest difference. 
 She had been often told that it did not attack the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 201 
 
 natives of the land, but only Europeans, who were 
 thought more delicate. Here, then, was the reason. 
 The natives who grew up were all inoculated, having 
 been through the disease in infancy. 
 
 Muhammad lived, for which his mother gave wild 
 thanks to Allah, and performed a hundred alms- 
 deeds she had vowed in her suspense. But a year 
 later her small daughter died of the same scourge, 
 and in the after years she lost five children by it.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 HER boy was her delight in life. No other woman 
 was allowed to scold him. When Yusuf slapped him 
 in the cause of order, which happened often, for the 
 child was naughty, she made it up to him with sugar- 
 plums and fond caresses. In his father's absence 
 Muhammad was the lord of the harim; all vied to 
 please him. His foster-mother and the servants told 
 him fairy stories in which good children killed all 
 kinds of monsters. One, which he never tired of 
 hearing, ended thus: 
 
 " Then little Hafiz took a sword and reaped the 
 head of the atrocious ghoul; and beat to death the 
 hag who had ill-used him, and with the help of all 
 the neighbours, who acclaimed his goodness, burnt 
 all his wicked little cousins in a cheerful fire." 
 
 He knew that tale by heart and went about repeat- 
 ing it. He had a lot of toys, but none which gave 
 him so much pleasure as a little cane. With this he 
 beat the slave-girls, uttering terrific curses. The 
 victims, for his satisfaction, made believe to cry, and 
 assured him they were seriously injured. His 
 mother and old Umm ed-Dahak praised his manly 
 spirit. 
 
 Fitnah Khanum sometimes shook her head and 
 202
 
 VEILED WOMEN 203 
 
 spoke of necessary discipline. Barakah only smiled ; 
 as she did also, when young Na'imah, puffed up with 
 pride of her new motherhood, exclaimed : " By Allah, 
 I will bring up my son otherwise." But when the 
 prim and dainty Turkish ladies looked fastidious, 
 glancing around her room where toys lay scattered, 
 she felt angry. The salon of those ladies were main- 
 tained in spotless cleanness ; their children, though 
 untidy to avert ill-fortune, were as courtly as small 
 chamberlains towards their elders. 
 
 " It is strange ! Thou art an Englishwoman, yet 
 thou likest these things ! " Aminah Khanum exclaimed 
 once, remarking her affection for a certain sweet- 
 stuff, common in the markets but unknown in decent 
 houses a taste she had acquired through Umm ed- 
 Dahak. " Thou art too much with the women of 
 the country. Be more discerning in the choice of 
 friends." 
 
 But Barakah was happy as she was; or, if not al- 
 together happy, chose to seem so from a blend of 
 pride and indolence. Against the condescension of 
 the Turkish ladies she armed her dignity with the 
 reflection that she was born above all Eastern women. 
 Yet she dared not let remembrance dwell on Eng- 
 land for fear of terrible misgivings she had sworn 
 to banish. Her boy, she thought, should be her vin- 
 dication. He was visibly superior to other children 
 of the land. 
 
 To him, clasped tightly to her breast, she poured 
 out all her secret and tormenting thoughts.
 
 204* VEILED WOMEN 
 
 The English had ill-treated her most shamefully. 
 Her son must hate the English for her sake. And 
 yet he must remember he was half an Englishman, 
 a being of a different order from the children round 
 him. And when he prayed he must ask Allah to in- 
 crease his strength and wisdom, so that he might 
 prove a match for any Englishman he might en- 
 counter in the course of life. The child, with bright 
 eyes, drank in all she said, but God alone knew what 
 his mind could make of it; for Barakah's opinions 
 were a tangle as of angry serpents, their utterance 
 as incoherent as the cries of battle. She heard him 
 once hurl " Englishwoman ! " at a slave who had en- 
 raged him. The girl laughed back : " Thy mother 
 is an Englishwoman," when he replied : " A noble 
 race and warlike the Muslimin among them, like 
 my mother. But thou art a low Christian of that 
 race, a filthy harlot ! " 
 
 Outside her own house and her husband's family 
 Barakah's chief friends were Gulbeyzah and Bedr- 
 ul-Budur. With them she laid aside the pride which 
 had become her usual armour in society. Yet Gul- 
 beyzah said one day when Barakah was calling on 
 her : " How thou art changed ! Rememberest thou 
 the days when we talked French together? Then 
 thou wast as timid and demure as mice are; and so 
 good and wise! Now thou art a high and mighty 
 Arab lady. I am half afraid ! " 
 
 " Thou too art greatly changed, O wicked joker! " 
 cried Barakah, impounding the Circassian's hand.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 205 
 
 " Rememberest thou the little window in the pas- 
 sage ? " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Gulbeyzah, with uplifted finger. 
 " By Allah, thou art owner of a shameless memory. 
 But come with, me ! " 
 
 She led her friend away from the reception-room, 
 upstairs, and showed her such another little window 
 as that they both remembered, looking out on dis- 
 tant roofs. " I come and dream here sometimes as 
 of old I, the mother of two children ! " sighed Gul- 
 beyzah. " There is a roof well fitted for a hopeless 
 lover, but no one ever comes. Now thou knowest 
 that I have not changed my foolish nature, although 
 in motherhood I have acquired a soul." 
 
 That the Turkish ladies rather wondered at her 
 preference for Gulbeyzah and Bedr-ul-Budur, two 
 former slaves, made Barakah the more enamoured 
 of their friendship. Muhammad was allowed to 
 visit them, and play games with their children, a 
 transcendent favour; and it was with a horror as 
 of treason and of base ingratitude that she heard 
 them, too, declare that he was sadly spoilt. 
 
 It was at the wedding-feast which Tahir, the great 
 singer, gave his daughter. The ladies of the grand 
 harims flocked thither eagerly, for it was known that 
 Tahir would perform. The two Circassians found 
 out Barakah amid the throng, and went and sat with 
 her in a deserted corner. Muhammad had that day 
 been playing with the children of Gulbeyzah's house. 
 
 " He is a little tyrant ! " said his hostess, laugh-
 
 206 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 ing. " A young savage. He attacked my little girl 
 as if to kill her, because she tried to get back her 
 own doll. I had to shake him. I told him that his 
 mother would be very angry at his conduct. He 
 cursed my religion and then spat at me. By our 
 lady Zeynab, thou shouldst beat him sometimes, O 
 my soul! " 
 
 " His spirit is too high and needs restraining. 
 Every one says so," said Bedr-ul-Budur. 
 
 " You must have thwarted him. He is not used 
 to it. He has the noblest, the most generous na- 
 ture," answered Barakah. 
 
 " By Allah, it is difficult not to thwart a boy who 
 claims the eyes from out one's face as his to play 
 with ! He must be denied, and when denied he grows 
 infuriated," said Gulbeyzah mildly. 
 
 Barakah was on the point of making a fierce an- 
 swer, when the glorious voice of Tahir rose, com- 
 pelling silence. She had heard a hundred singers, 
 male and female, since she came to Cairo ; but Tahir's 
 voice alone had power to move her. The others 
 mouthed and shrieked to individual passions; but 
 Tahir took the soul and soared with it, producing 
 exaltation and sense of peace. He sang from the 
 pure heart of El Islam, and shed its fervent calm on 
 all who heard him. When the song died she had 
 forgotten anger. 
 
 That wedding-feast became for ever memorable 
 by reason of a shocking tragedy at its conclusion. 
 Barakah and her friends were led by Umm ed-
 
 VEILED WOMEN S07 
 
 Dahak, who was a relative of Tahir's wife, to view 
 the nuptial chamber. It was full of flowering plants ; 
 the bed, with silken coverings, was quite embowered. 
 In addition to the odour of so many blossoms the 
 air was thick with perfumes burnt and sprinkled. 
 The room, they were informed, had been arranged, 
 the flowers provided, by rich admirers of the singer's 
 talent. 
 
 "By Allah, pretty! But I should not like to 
 sleep there ! " had been Gulbeyzah's comment, little 
 guessing what would happen. For next morning it 
 was known to high and low, through all the city, that 
 the bridegroom and the bride had died of suffoca- 
 tion. When people went to rouse them in the morn- 
 ing they found corpses. The news was brought to 
 Barakah by Umm ed-Dahak, who had herself been 
 present at the sad discovery. She told the story 
 with an artist's relish. 
 
 "What did Tahir do? The poor demented 
 father? What did he? He took his lute and struck 
 the chords and sang a song more mournful than was 
 ever heard on earth till now. Many present had to 
 leave the room in grievous pains. And then, with 
 the last note C-r-r-a-c-k ! he broke the lute, and 
 swore the binding oath that he would never sing 
 again. In sh' Allah he will change his mind," said 
 Umm ed-Dahak, in her ordinary tone. " The world 
 would lack a soul without his singing. His oath has 
 spread despair through all the town." 
 
 For months the news of Tahir was demanded
 
 208 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 eagerly. After his daughter's death he went to 
 Tantah for a while. Returning to the capital, pre- 
 pared to keep his vow, he took a shop and furnished 
 it with goods, intending to become a merchant. He 
 thought to work out bargains over cups of coffee, by 
 way of pastime only, for he was a wealthy man. But 
 the people, his admirers, would not have it. They 
 thronged his shop directly it was opened, and bought 
 up all his goods in a few hours, paying the price first 
 asked without a protest. He stocked his shop again ; 
 the same thing happened, till, finding himself de- 
 barred from occupation, he cursed the day when he 
 was born; and in the end repaired to the Grand 
 Cadi, and asked for liberation from his vow. The 
 reverend judge released him with a grin and " Praise 
 to Allah ! " It was what his Honour and the whole 
 of Egypt had been wanting. Enormous crowds as- 
 sembled to hear Tahir call to noonday prayer at 
 the great mosque El Azhar the first occasion of 
 his singing since his daughter's death. 
 
 " The praise to Allah, we possess him once again," 
 said Umm ed-Dahak, when reporting his defeat. 
 " It has cost us trouble to regain him, Allah knows. 
 He did wrong to swear that oath; which was as 
 impious as swearing to cut off his hand or foot, the 
 work of God; and so the Cadi told him in his judg- 
 ment yesterday. He brought the grief upon him- 
 self by doting on the girl above her merits, calling 
 her his soul of music, neglecting the son who is still 
 with him a fine lad. By the Prophet, it was court-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 209 
 
 ing sorrow to make all that fuss about a daughter. 
 
 Now had it been his son, his source of honour " 
 
 Barakah interrupted with a prayer to Allah to 
 avert the omen of her stabbing fear. She clutched 
 Muhammad to her bosom; but he, intent on play- 
 things, kicked and struggled, even swore at her. 
 And at that moment Fitnah Khanum was announced.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 WHEN Fitnah Khanum entered, the small boy was 
 stamping about on the dais, hurling frightful impre- 
 cations at his mother, who was on her knees endeav- 
 ouring to soothe him. His fez was off, and he had 
 trampled on it in his rage; he tore his clothing. 
 Umm ed-Dahak, crouching by the wall with her 
 nargileh, made clucking noises to attract the child; 
 while the wife of Ghandtir, standing, smiled, upon the 
 scene, awaiting the command to bear him off. The 
 floor was littered with his broken playthings. The 
 light that filtered in through the rich lattice was blue 
 with all the dust that he had raised. 
 
 " Look, here comes thy grandmother, a great lady. 
 Hush, O Muhammad! Be a good boy. I will give 
 thee such nice sweeties." 
 
 " Mayest thou be ravished and then cut in 
 pieces ! " shrieked Muhammed, knuckling both his 
 eyes. Therewith he spurned his mother with his foot. 
 
 The visitor remained a moment petrified. It was 
 the first time she had seen her grandson at his worst. 
 Then, boxing both ears of the wife of Ghandur, who 
 stood grinning near her, she rushed upon the wicked 
 boy, and slapped him hard, regardless of his kicks 
 and blows, his horrid language. 
 
 210
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 "Learn to respect thy mother, little malefactor," 
 she admonished him, enforcing every word with pun- 
 ishment. " Thou art no better than a heathen, than 
 a wild beast. Thou wilt merit fire hereafter ! " 
 
 But Barakah sprang on her like a tigress. " He 
 is my child ! Let him alone ! " she panted. 
 
 " He is thy child, truly, but a Muslim first. To 
 curse and kick his mother is a dreadful crime." 
 
 " Let him alone, I say ! By Allah, no one shall 
 chastise my son but me, his mother ! " 
 
 The ladies, both alike indignant, screamed against 
 each other; Umm ed-Dahak, ever ready to applaud 
 a truth, however adverse, begged her mistress to hear 
 wisdom from the mouth of Fitnah Khanum; the wife 
 of Ghandur was in tears, and all the slave-girls, as- 
 sembling in the hope to see a fight, shrieked prayers 
 to Allah and implored the ladies to be calm. Mu- 
 hammad, in disgust at being quite forgotten, set up 
 a dismal howl, which no one heeded. 
 
 At length, perceiving the futility of further argu- 
 ment, the visitor retired, by no means vanquished. 
 
 " The child must be removed if thou wilt not con- 
 trol him," were her parting words, unheard of any 
 one amid the din. 
 
 In the greatest agitation and distress of mind, 
 Fitnah Khanum went back to her carriage and was 
 driven home. She sought immediate audience of 
 Murjanah Khanum. She had a warm affection for 
 the wife of Yusuf, and something like a passion for 
 her little grandson. The need to take stern meas-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 ures with them filled her eyes with tears ; but her re- 
 ligion nerved her to perform a duty. A scene like 
 that she had just witnessed must never be allowed to 
 be repeated in a Muslim house. 
 
 Murjanah's look grew worried as she learned the 
 story. 
 
 " I have spoken to the dear one once, and fain 
 would never speak to her again in chiding tones," 
 she murmured. " I pity her extremely, for she is 
 alone among us and, I think, afraid. Consider 
 what might have become of one of us if set down 
 all alone amid the life of Europe! But it devolves 
 on us to intervene since Yusuf, as thou sayest, will 
 not act against her." 
 
 As a result of Fitnah's allegations, Murjanah 
 Khanum called a council of the matrons of the fam- 
 ily, including in the number her ex-slave, Gulbeyzah, 
 who, as Barakah's best friend, might plead her cause. 
 But Gulbeyzah, when the case was laid before her, 
 shrugged and cried: 
 
 " By Allah, it is true, she will destroy the child ! 
 How often have I tried to warn her! But she is 
 haughty in her weakness, and impatient of advice. 
 She loves the fawning voice of her own servants. 
 She has greatly changed. Yusuf Bey, however, is 
 for discipline. She has more than once complained 
 to me of his severity towards the boy." 
 
 " What good is that when she consoles Muham- 
 mad afterwards, and talks about his cruel father. I 
 have heard her," put in Na'imah, who was a mem-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 213 
 
 ber of the conclave, though a child in years. She 
 spoke with great excitement. All the ladies smiled. 
 Murjanah Khanum touched her cheek affectionately, 
 and called her the most excellent of little mothers. 
 Murjanah added: 
 
 " The whole trouble, as I see it, is her want of 
 faith. She has lost the comfort of her own religion, 
 without acquiring ours in more than name. Is such 
 a woman, full of cowardice and self-indulgence, fit to 
 rear a Muslim? Unless she change her whole be- 
 haviour, which appears unlikely, for her strength is 
 gone, will it be wise to leave the child with her? " 
 
 " No ! " came from all sides. 
 
 " Let his grandmother take charge of him," said 
 Leylah Khanum. 
 
 " God forbid ! " cried Fitnah, " lest his mother 
 hate me. Let him be given to the wisest, most be- 
 nign of women, to our dear Murjanah." 
 
 This motion won applause from all the ladies on 
 the divan. They smiled to one another with rouged 
 lips and kohled eyes. The room was beautifully cool 
 and sweet, the cigarettes were of the best, the cof- 
 fee excellent, and every one enjoyed the sense of do- 
 ing serious business. 
 
 Murjanah showed no fear of the responsibility. 
 Assured of Fitnah Khanum's gracious help, she said 
 the task of civilising the small boy would not dis- 
 please her; but first the menfolk had to be consulted, 
 and due warning must be given to the luckless 
 mother. The ladies Fitnah, Leylah, and Murjanah
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 were deputed to convey the verdict of the council 
 to the Pasha and to Yusuf Bey, who were invited 
 to Murjanah's rooms that evening. 
 
 Yusuf displayed some irritation when he heard the 
 charges. 
 
 " But my wife is a Frank ! " he cried. " Allah 
 knows it is but natural her ways should be different 
 from ours.'* 
 
 Murjanah took no notice of the interruption, but 
 proceeded to relate the scene described by Fitnah. 
 She mentioned also facts which he could not gain- 
 say, as that Muhammad never kissed his father's 
 hand, that he sat down in his father's presence with- 
 out asking leave, and that he did not wait upon his 
 parents as behooved a child. Yusuf was silenced, 
 though he looked annoyed. The Pasha wore his 
 blandest diplomatic visage. 
 
 " With thy permission, O my lord," said the great 
 lady, " we have thought upon this matter and dis- 
 cussed it fully. If it be allowed for us to proffer a 
 suggestion, it is that thou, who didst endow the 
 bride of Yusuf and stand in some sort for her peo- 
 ple at the wedding, shouldst of thy gracious favour 
 go and reason with her." 
 
 The Pasha, fingering his beads, observed that God 
 is merciful. 
 
 " Of thy kindness condescend to view the case," 
 she urged. " The boy is brought up utterly devoid 
 of reverence. What is his fate when he goes out to 
 faice the world unmannerly, rebellious, a mad dog,
 
 VEILED WOMEN 215 
 
 a savage, detestable alike to great and small. Of 
 what use will he be to El Islam? Oh, God forbid 
 that he should grow like that a scourge to his two 
 parents, and the scorn of others. It is to save him 
 and his mother from the consequences of her folly 
 that we beg thee of thy mercy to remonstrate with 
 her, and if she will not hearken, to confide the educa- 
 tion of the child to us. The word is spoken. May 
 our Lord preserve thee ever ! " 
 
 " May Allah help us all ! " replied the Pasha 
 gently. 
 
 When he and Yusuf had departed from the ladies 
 and were returning through dim corridors to the 
 selamlik, he inquired: 
 
 "What sayest thou?" 
 
 " They much exaggerate," said Yusuf warmly. 
 " I keep an eye upon the boy. In course of time 
 I shall correct his conduct." 
 
 " Do it now ! " 
 
 " What meanest thou ? Why dost thou smile, my 
 father? " 
 
 " I smile because I have observed that when the 
 women take that tone * of thy great kindness deign 
 to listen,' and the rest, there is no safe course for 
 man but to obey. The boy is five years old and it 
 is time he learnt behaviour. It is thy business, O 
 my son; remonstrate with her." 
 
 " Nay, for they charged thee with the office." 
 
 " It is thine of right." 
 
 " Very gladly I resign it to thee. Thy words
 
 216 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 have more weight. And how can I turn round upon 
 her suddenly? She will think me mad." 
 
 " By Allah, I implore thee to perform thy duty." 
 
 " By the Prophet, I beseech, adjure thee to be- 
 friend me now, as thou hast done from childhood. I 
 will tell her to expect a visit from thee in the morn- 
 ing." 
 
 "Well, God is greatest!" The good Pasha 
 heaved a sigh, proclaiming his acceptance of the part 
 allotted. 
 
 Accordingly, next morning, arrayed in his official 
 black frock-coat and newest fez, he waited upon Bar- 
 akah, who received him with delight, evidently un- 
 suspecting the real purpose of his visit. He thought 
 that Yusuf might at least have warned her. How- 
 ever, with a shrug, he opened business in his usual 
 courtly and confiding manner, speaking in French, 
 since servants are born eavesdroppers. 
 
 " Madame my daughter," he began, " from the 
 moment when you did my house the honour of es- 
 pousing my dear son, I have been your servant and 
 admirer; that is known. Yusuf himself has not 
 more tender veneration for your many virtues and 
 accomplishments, so rare among us." He went on to 
 recite the panegyric of her general conduct as a wife 
 and mother, paid tribute to her beauty and her piety, 
 and then said, " But there is one small point on which 
 I have to scold you. In your great goodness, your 
 untiring kindness, you forget to claim the service 
 due to you. Your slaves, as I have heard, grow
 
 VEILED WOMEN 217 
 
 fat and lazy, and though devoted to you as what 
 soul would not be ? do not keep your house so 
 scrupulously clean and nicely ordered as the dwell- 
 ing-place of such a treasure ought to be. I beg you 
 to make hard your heart from time to time, to think 
 a little less for others and more often for yourself. 
 Even your own son should be brought up to rever- 
 ence you, as one to whom he owes incalculable debts 
 of gratitude. He should kiss your hand whenever 
 he approaches, and bow and ask your blessing when 
 he takes his leave. It is our custom for small chil- 
 dren and, I think, a good one. How is the little one 
 this morning? Am I not to be allowed to see him 
 for one moment? " 
 
 Barakah clapped her hands and, when a slave ap- 
 peared, gave order for Muhammad to be brought. 
 He came in presently, escorted by his foster-mother, 
 who stood and watched his progress to the dais with 
 loving smiles. He was in docile mood, and Barakah 
 detained him, giving the wife of Ghandur leave to 
 go. 
 
 "What fault is there to find in his behaviour?" 
 she inquired in French, with arch defiance of the 
 Pasha. 
 
 " None in the world," he made reply, with vast 
 politeness, " except that he has not kissed hands, 
 nor waited your permission to sit down with us." 
 
 " Absurd ! " laughed Barakah. 
 
 " Absurd, in verity, like many of our customs. 
 Only, my cherished daughter, he is one of us and
 
 18 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 must observe them. If you refuse to teach him the 
 behaviour which we consider fitting for young chil- 
 dren, I announce with deep regret that we must take 
 him from you." 
 
 Barakah gasped. She looked for signs of jest- 
 ing; but the Pasha's visage, though urbane, was 
 serious. 
 
 " It has been told me," he continued very gravely, 
 " that this boy, when angry, kicks and curses his 
 own mother. That is, for us others, a most dread- 
 ful crime, apart from the regard in which I hold 
 you personally. My grandson must not be brought 
 up to shame our house; the authority of the family 
 must be exerted to avert dishonour. In fact, dear 
 madame, if you will not punish him, he must be given 
 for a while to some one who will do so." 
 
 " But it is unheard of ! " cried the mother wildly. 
 " How can you think of such abominable cruelty ? 
 He is my child. My right to him exists in 
 nature." 
 
 " And is inalienable," said the Pasha, with a splen- 
 did bow. " No one else can ever bear him, but some 
 one else will have to educate him, since madame re- 
 fuses." 
 
 " I am an Englishwoman. I shall complain to my 
 Consul." 
 
 " Believe me, dear madame, he will not listen. 
 Your son is a Turkish sub j ect ; we inhabit Egypt ; 
 and in a case of this sort we allow no interference. 
 The English are a race distinguished for intelligence
 
 VEILED WOMEN 219 
 
 and force of character, I beg you to display those 
 qualities on this occasion." 
 
 He left her in hysterics, clinging fiercely to her 
 boy.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 No sooner was the Pasha gone than Umm ed-Dahak 
 crept back softly to her mistress and cooed of con- 
 solation in her ear. Muhammad, who had started 
 howling out of sympathy, she told to go and play 
 with Ghandur's son. 
 
 " By Allah, it is all my fault, not thine," she 
 whispered. " I ought to have foreseen this grief and 
 warned thee. Vex not thy soul at all! It is no 
 matter! Praise be to Allah, we can change our 
 policy. To-morrow thou wilt beat thy son a little, 
 and all the world will praise thy management." 
 
 But the mother's tears were flowing less from 
 sense of guilt than for the helplessness, the lack of 
 energy, which she discovered in herself at such a 
 crisis. The call to make an effort paralysed her; 
 she hung on Umm ed-Dahak like a frightened child, 
 agreeing with loud sobs to the old woman's state- 
 ment that on the morrow they would make a new 
 beginning. 
 
 That afternoon the little boy had been invited to 
 Gulbeyzah's house. His mother being too unwell to 
 bear him company, he started off on foot in the cus- 
 tody of Ghandur. Barakah adjured him to be very 
 
 220
 
 VEILED WOMEN 221 
 
 good and mind his manners, on which he kissed her 
 with a most angelic smile. 
 
 " See how obedient and how good he is ! " she 
 wailed, her anguish breaking out afresh when he was 
 gone. " How can they say he is not well brought 
 up?" 
 
 "Without a doubt they have been misinformed," 
 cooed Umm ed-Dahak. " They have mistaken some 
 exceptional disorder for his general conduct. Ma 
 sh' Allah! With but a touch of discipline, a very 
 little teaching of good manners, thou wilt make him 
 glorious, a pattern to all other children of this age." 
 
 But Muhammad, who had set forth as an angel, 
 returned a little devil, in a sullen rage. He would 
 not speak a word, refused all nourishment, and sat 
 aloof with frowning brows and gnashing teeth. 
 Ghandur, who brought him home, had sent in word 
 that he had been a naughty boy and needed punish- 
 ment. So Ghandur also was his mother's enemy. 
 
 Muhammad struck at all the women who came 
 near him. He swore by the Most High to ravish 
 every one of them, to tear their eyes out and cut 
 off their hands and feet. The servants laughed at 
 his ferocious impotence, which made things worse. 
 When his mother came and knelt beside him, he at 
 first repelled her; but after half an hour's incessant 
 coaxing she elicited his cause of grief. 
 
 He had been pretending in his play to kill 
 Gulbeyzah's little girl " not really hurting her," 
 he blubbered, " though she shrieked like a dying
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 fowl " when all at once, without the slightest pro- 
 vocation, a big boy assailed him, flung him down and 
 knelt upon him, pinning his two hands. While he 
 was in that position the ladies of the harim had come 
 in and reviled him, praising his cruel persecutor as a 
 hero. They had then conveyed him, kicking, to 
 Ghandiir, who, like the beast he was, believed their 
 lies. 
 
 " It is no matter, O beloved ! Dry thy tears ! 
 Never never shalt thou visit that unfriendly house 
 again," his mother whispered. 
 
 Muhammad hiccuped on a sob, " Wallahi ! " and 
 fell again to gnashing of his teeth and moaning. 
 
 " See ! " murmured Umm ed-Dahak. " See his 
 dauntless spirit! By Allah, it is true, he must be 
 tamed a little." 
 
 That night he cried himself to sleep, and in the 
 morning was snappish and morose, with furtive eyes. 
 About the fourth hour of the day his mother missed 
 him, and having sought through all the house in 
 vain, conceived grave fears. She sent a eunuch to 
 the Pasha's palace, while Ghandur cried the tidings 
 through the quarter. Distraught with grief, she ran 
 from room to room in the hottest hours of the day, 
 always expecting to find Muhammad hiding some- 
 where. At last she sank down on a couch, exhausted. 
 
 The third hour after noon, as she was lying thus, 
 Gulbeyzah and her durrahs were announced. They 
 entered with much tragic exclamation. Then the 
 truth was known. Muhammad had repaired that
 
 VEILED WOMEN 223 
 
 morning to their house and joined the children's 
 games, appearing friendly. But he was only wait- 
 ing for his chance of vengeance; for, luring Gulbey- 
 zah's little girl apart, he stabbed her with a dagger 
 he had got the Lord knew how ! and cried to 
 her big brother, " Thy account, O tyrant ! " 
 
 His victim praise to Allah was not killed ; 
 nor even, by His mercy, maimed for life; but the 
 ensuing uproar in the house may be imagined. The 
 murderous child had been imprisoned in a room 
 apart; the lord of the harim, when summoned, had 
 sent at once for Yusuf Bey, who was even now ex- 
 amining the culprit. Directly the responsibility had 
 been lifted off them, they (the ladies) had flown 
 straight to Barakah to assure her of their unim- 
 paired affection. But merciful Allah ! what 
 was the world coming to? They sought refuge in 
 Allah from such revengeful fury in so small a child. 
 
 " You must have used him very cruelly," the 
 mother cried. " He is by nature the most generous 
 of children, not a criminal ! " 
 
 At that, all four began to talk at once. Barakah 
 talked against them, and the slave-girls and depend- 
 ants, looking on, raised cries. The argument was at 
 its height when Yusuf was announced. The din 
 ceased instantly. The four Circassians raised their 
 mouth-veils in alarm and slipped away ; the servants, 
 silenced, went into another room. 
 
 Yusuf entered, stern of countenance, dragging by 
 the arm the peccant boy, whose mouth hung open,
 
 224 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 while his eyes stared wildly, fixed in the imbecility 
 of abject fear. 
 
 Barakah fell down at her husband's feet and 
 screamed for mercy. He was obdurate. 
 
 " Let be, O woman ! " he commanded. " My 
 child, as trained by thee, is now a malefactor. He 
 robs and kills ; he breaks the law of hospitality. He 
 stole a weapon from Ghandur, his foster-father, and 
 with it stabbed a little girl, whose guest he was. 
 Henceforth I take him from thee, and give him to 
 my mothers to be educated. Seek not to counteract 
 their efforts, or by the Ca'abah I will beat thee 
 soundly as I now beat him." 
 
 With that, he marched his son into an inner room, 
 whence presently there issued sounds of blows and 
 bitter wailing. Barakah ground her face upon the 
 floor and stopped her ears. 
 
 Muhammad, by his father's orders, was shut off 
 from her that night; and the next morning, before 
 Yusuf went to business, the Pasha's harim carriage 
 came to fetch the child. The eunuch brought a 
 letter from Murjanah Khanum, inviting Barakah to 
 come and give her counsel. But Barakah's sole 
 answer was an angry cry. 
 
 For several days she would not budge from her 
 own rooms, refused to see the Pasha's ladies when 
 they called, and persisted, notwithstanding every 
 argument, in posing as the victim of most foul in- 
 justice. And Umm ed-Dahak coaxed and soothed 
 her all that while. At length, one day, Murjanah
 
 VEILED WOMEN 225 
 
 Khanum entered, unannounced; and Barakah, in act 
 to rise and make indignant protest, was silenced by 
 the sight of her own child. 
 
 " Go, O Muhammad, do what I have told thee," 
 said the old lady, with her hand on the boy's shoulder. 
 Whereat Muhammad went up gravely and bowed 
 over his mother's hand to kiss it, but she caught him 
 in her arms, preventing him. He called out to 
 Murjanah Khanum that it was not fair, and strug- 
 gled to get free. She put him down, when he went 
 on with his polite performance, kissed her hand and 
 pressed his forehead to it, inquired after her health 
 and asked her blessing; and then in the most courtly 
 Arabic asked what he had done that one of his par- 
 ents, who were dearer to him than all living creatures, 
 should punish him by five days of avoidance. 
 
 " The harim of my grandfather, Muhammad 
 Pasha Salih, depute me to request that thou wilt 
 honour us this day and every day with thy most 
 gracious presence, O my mother." 
 
 Before the termination of this speech and cere- 
 mony, Barakah was lying on her face in tears. She 
 had thought, through the long hours of deprivation, 
 that they were teaching her own child to disregard, 
 if not to hate her. The relief was great. Murjanah 
 sat beside her and caressed her, while Muhammad, 
 standing reverently, looked concerned. 
 
 They took her with them in the carriage to the 
 Pasha's house, where, instead of reprobation, she 
 met boundless sympathy. The ladies Fitnah and
 
 226 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Murjanah told her all that had been done for the 
 small boy, with evident anxiety for her approval. 
 Muhammad showed her all the harim pets. He bade 
 a slave-girl bring his own white doves. She brought 
 three in her bosom. At his call, they flew to him 
 and settled on his head and shoulders. There dwelt 
 a parrot in the house of Na'imah, a monkey in the 
 house of Fitnah Khanum, which she had to visit; 
 as well as roving cats, and little birds in cages, and 
 several street-dogs who came round for food. He 
 also showed with pride his plot of garden, consisting 
 of a box of scented herbs. And all the while that she 
 was in the house, he waited on her like a page, kiss- 
 ing her hand whenever he could get a chance, and 
 telling her the joy he felt in seeing her. When, left 
 alone with him, she strove to whisper consolation, 
 he shook his head decidedly, and told her: " O my 
 mother, I have learnt to know that I was very wicked. 
 Thou wast ever much too gentle and too kind with 
 me. Allah knows how much I love thee my 
 grandmothers have taught me that but it is well 
 that I should be removed from thee a while and 
 brought to reverence. It is not right that one so 
 delicate as thou art should have a rough, ill-mannered 
 boy to vex thee." 
 
 He loved her more than ever, it appeared, but 
 thought her not much wiser than himself. 
 
 Her fear of the stern rules of El Islam was tamed 
 by reverence. 
 
 " By Allah, they are like the string and we the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 227 
 
 beads," said Umm ed-Dahak, holding up a rosary 
 to point her meaning. " Thirty-three beads of no 
 intrinsic worth. If scattered, useless and soon lost. 
 If strung together, a comely instrument of praise to 
 God." 
 
 Barakah watched Muhammad with humility; not 
 jealous of the change which had been wrought by 
 others, but choosing to regard it as a miracle direct 
 from Heaven. His pride, once wayward, now was 
 focused on his coming manhood. He told her all his 
 thoughts, which seemed to her most wise. He waited 
 on her hand and foot when in her presence. Yet in 
 this deference there was a touch of condescension 
 which was absent from the honour which he paid to 
 Yusuf. His father was his sovereign, she his tender 
 care. Such wisdom in so small a child appeared 
 miraculous. She worshipped his perfections while 
 he bowed before her.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 AT seven years old Muhammad went to school. It 
 was customary for the scions of great houses to be 
 taught at home by private tutors, but the family 
 council had decreed that so exceptional a child must 
 feel the yoke of public discipline and mix with other 
 boys as soon as possible. The school, just founded 
 by the widow of a former ruler, was reckoned mod- 
 ern, for the simple reason that the scholars learnt 
 geography and history, and handled other books as 
 well as the august Goran. 
 
 Ghandur led off Muhammad every morning, and 
 brought him home at evening through the perils of 
 the streets. Barakah's thoughts were with him all 
 day long; she liked to guess at his employment at a 
 given moment ; while Umm ed-Dahak painted flatter- 
 ing pictures of his skill in learning, the astonishment 
 of all his masters at his brilliant genius. 
 
 When she was driven out to pay her calls, Bara- 
 kah arranged beforehand with the eunuch that the 
 carriage should pull up before the school. Then 
 through the shutter she would watch the iron screen 
 which filled each window-arch and listen to the drone 
 of children's voices. 
 
 228
 
 VEILED WOMEN 229 
 
 The school was an octagonal kiosk of marble, 
 touching the wall of a world-famous mosque. Its 
 salient bulk half throttled an important thoroughfare, 
 forming a narrow strait where traffic battled, and on 
 each side a little bay or backwater where the carriage 
 could draw up without obstruction. There, under- 
 neath the windows with their arabesques of iron 
 screen-work, sat street sorcerers with trays of sand 
 before them, venders of sugarcane and slabs of bread 
 and divers nuts; and holy beggars slumbered in the 
 shade. Barakah knew exactly where Muhammad 
 had his seat and, waiting upon that side, watched 
 a certain opening in the iron-work, from which there 
 presently emerged a little hand. It fluttered for a 
 moment and was then withdrawn. She waited for a 
 second signal and a third before she gave the order 
 to drive on. 
 
 At school Muhammad's aim was to excel by all 
 means. The counsels of Murjanah Khanum, who 
 used religious and inspiring words, had fired his 
 brain. He had but one ambition now to please 
 his father. He would prove the best of Muslims, the 
 most zealous, the most learned, and then his father 
 would forget his former wickedness. In pursuance 
 of this end he chafed at every obstacle and was in- 
 furiated by stupidity or sloth in others. He beat his 
 foster-brother more than once through mere impa- 
 tience, and in the end put zeal into that vacant but 
 receptive youth. And Barakah, whose worship of 
 her paragon extended to the son of Ghandur as his
 
 230 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 shadow, became the confidante of all their thoughts 
 and projects. 
 
 The report which the headmaster made to Yusuf 
 Bey after Muhammad's first few weeks at school was 
 satisfactory. 
 
 " The boy, thy son," remarked the reverend man, 
 " is highly gifted and extremely diligent. In sh' Al- 
 lah, he will live to be a light to El Islam, a glory to 
 this land of Masr, and a worthy slave of the Most 
 High. We have only one small fault to find with 
 his behaviour, which is that, in his eagerness, he 
 answers questions we address to other boys, and is 
 inclined to argue with the teacher as if instruction 
 were for him alone." 
 
 His mother was delighted with this verdict, whose 
 one restriction seemed to her the highest praise. She 
 began to cherish visions of his future greatness, and 
 with the aid of Umm ed-Dahak built grand castles 
 in the air. 
 
 " In sh' Allah, he will rise to rule in Egypt ; he will 
 be the right hand of the Khedive, the chief vizier, 
 the leader of the armies ; the sword and shield of El 
 Islam, the scourge of Allah on the heathen and all 
 infidels." 
 
 Thus Umm ed-Dahak, seated on the floor beside 
 her mistress ; who, reclining on the dais at ease with 
 her narghileh, removed the amber mouthpiece from 
 her lips to sigh, In sh'AUah ! " 
 
 In order to be worthy of her son's magnificence, 
 Barakah had evolved a fine romantic history out of
 
 VEILED WOMEN 231 
 
 her own past. The transmutation of that dross to 
 gold took place so naturally that she was not aware 
 of lying when she told her crony that she was of 
 royal birth. Gentility being something inconceiv- 
 able by Umm ed-Dahak, who knew of no inherited 
 prestige save that of an Emir, she was obliged, in 
 order to convey the status of a governess, to com- 
 pare it with the lot of fallen princes. From thence 
 to the invention of a principality was but a step. 
 The remonstrance of the Consul and of Mrs. Cameron 
 against her marriage became the rage of a fanatical 
 and angry nation. The noise of her conversion 
 had disturbed all Europe, and nearly brought on a 
 religious war. Let Umm ed-Dahak ask the Pasha, 
 if she doubted! 
 
 But Umm ed-Dahak was not of the kind who 
 doubt. For her, romantic fiction was more worth 
 than fact. She accepted this, as she accepted every 
 tale, artistically, and even added likely details un- 
 perceived of Barakah. 
 
 The servants came to know the weakness of their 
 mistress and addressed her as " Emirah " with all 
 kinds of ceremony. The disease was catching; they 
 themselves became infected. With the blacks illusion 
 took the form of demoniacal possession. Each one 
 began to brag of " him who dwells in me," his power 
 and jurisdiction over other demons. Barakah over- 
 heard them talking of their inmates, discussing pedi- 
 grees and finding out relationships which had 
 existence only in the world of ginn. She once com-
 
 232 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 plained of their insanity to Fitnah Khanum, and 
 asked what could be done to put a stop to it. 
 
 " I know one cure for devils as for every other 
 illness of unmarried girls, and that is matrimony," 
 was the answer. " Among us here it is a sovereign 
 remedy; among the Franks it seems less effica- 
 cious." 
 
 " Among the Franks such foolish fancies are un- 
 known," laughed Barakah, when Fitnah Khanum 
 sniffed, but said no more. 
 
 " The poor one is herself possessed," she told 
 Murjanah afterwards. " The servants say a prin- 
 cess of the ginn inhabits her; and she complains 
 because they also harbour inmates. She ought to 
 see a proper exorcist." 
 
 The ladies all agreed to pity her. But Barakah, 
 unconscious of their criticism, pursued her path of 
 dreams with Umm ed-Dahak. 
 
 " May fire consume the infidels who thus dethroned 
 thee, who robbed thee of thy land and honours ! " 
 cried the latter. " O day of milk, when thou didst 
 fly for succour to the Muslimin ! They will avenge 
 thy wrongs, in sh' Allah, in the time to come. Thy 
 son shall win his birthright back with fire and 
 sword. . . . Ma sh' Allah! Do I not behold his 
 state? I see him on a throne, with courtiers prone 
 before him Muhammad Yusuf Pasha, styled ' the 
 Great ' nay, what say I ? the Emir, the King 
 Muhammad in virtue of his mother's dignity ! " cried 
 Umm ed-Dahak with dilated eyes. " By Allah, the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 233 
 
 most splendid scene I ever witnessed! He is Grand 
 Vizier!" 
 
 But the downfall of the Khedive's favourite, oc- 
 curring at this epoch, dashed the ardour of the seers, 
 and caused them in alarm to change their vision. 
 The man, whose pomp had served them for a measure 
 of Muhammad's greatness, disappeared from life. 
 The story ran that, having grown too great, he had 
 been trapped by order of his loving master, accom- 
 modated with a weighted sack, and dropped into the 
 Nile. The tidings caused a flutter in the world of 
 women like that of seafarers beholding shipwreck. 
 For the favourite's death involved the ruin of a great 
 harim, boasting its troupes of dancers and of trained 
 musicians, lavish of entertainment and of gay repute. 
 Its members, far too many to be all beloved, had, 
 some of them, found vent in wild amours which fur- 
 nished thrilling stories to more lucky women. Now 
 all the slaves were scattered among other houses ; the 
 ladies, owning private property, returned to their 
 relations pending further marriage. The great 
 man's children were reduced to mediocrity; his hon- 
 ours and emoluments divided up among a score of 
 courtiers; his name became a byword for pride's 
 fall. 
 
 " Wallahi, our beloved must not follow in his steps 
 too closely. Allah forbid ! " said Umm ed-Dahak 
 solemnly. And forthwith she began to make another 
 forecast, with frequent " In sh' Allans " and " Ma 
 sh' Allans," to rob it of all taint of boastfulness.
 
 234 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " He goes up gently, rousing no suspicion in the 
 ruler, winning the people's voice, as did Muhammad 
 Ali. Then, when the times are ripe, he asks the 
 Sovereign and his courtiers to a banquet and cuts 
 all their throats. Then he ascends the throne and 
 does good deeds, till all men praise the Maker for his 
 rare benevolence. And thou, his mother, wilt reside 
 in splendid state, and when the great ones of the 
 English come with gifts for thee, thou wilt spit upon 
 them and repel them with thy little foot. In sh* 
 Allah!" 
 
 Barakah would be a widow in those days, by 
 Allah's mercy. A queen, she would of course have 
 many lovers. Did she desire a man one word, 
 and he was hers as quick as lightning! And Umm 
 ed-Dahak would be ever at her call to spread the net 
 for goodly youths and guard her secret. 
 
 "But I shall be too old by then!" laughed 
 Barakah. 
 
 " Please Allah, no ! " cried the old woman, a trifle 
 vexed at being brought to earth. " Thou wilt be 
 still quite youthful. See thee now: what beauty, 
 what a youthful figure! By Allah, almost wicked 
 in a mother! Thou dost not grow old." 
 
 In fact, her shape, though something fat, was not 
 ungainly, like that of younger women leading the 
 same life. She took no care of it, conforming to the 
 harim custom for women who bear children to let 
 beauty go. " The time and purpose of the bloom is 
 past, the fruit succeeds, more noble," they assured
 
 VEILED WOMEN 235 
 
 her. She saw the rarest beauties, like Bedr-ul- 
 Budur, already changing into fat old women. Com- 
 pared with them she felt still young and comely. 
 But when, her carriage rolling on the Gizah road, she 
 saw real Frankish women, riding, driving, she felt a 
 raddled and unwieldy hag. There was one English- 
 woman in particular who often passed her, driving a 
 light dog-cart with a Nubian groom behind 
 straight as a lance and trim of waist, with rosy cheeks 
 and bright eyes under grizzled hair. A creature of 
 free air and open sunlight, the shuttered, perfumed 
 shade could not produce her like. A jealousy near 
 hatred stirred in Barakah. 
 
 One evening Yusuf, thinking to amuse her, had 
 sent her with his sisters and Muhammad to the new 
 opera-house which the Khedive had built to please 
 the European visitors, and also to provide His High- 
 ness with relays of mistresses. There, in a harim 
 box behind a screen, she smoked cigarettes and lis- 
 tened to what seemed mere senseless screeching to one 
 who had admired the voice of Tahir. The opera 
 was Don Giovanni. Never had she witnessed a per- 
 formance so stilted, artificial, and absurd. She quite 
 agreed with the remarks of her companions, who, 
 after their first wonder at the building and the 
 lighted stage, yawned openly and called it simple 
 madness. Yet the entertainment was no bad one to 
 the taste of Europe, as she knew from the applause 
 of people in the unscreened boxes, where bare-faced, 
 brilliant women sat and stared about them. The
 
 236 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 mere existence of those women there in Cairo, trans- 
 gressing every native rule of conduct, was an insult. 
 The freshness even of the old ones made her conscious 
 of decay. When the girls after the second act pro- 
 posed to go, she agreed gladly. Muhammad 
 screamed to stay, and had to be transported bodily 
 by Barakah, while one of his young aunts held her 
 hand upon his mouth. A very small boy at the 
 time, he had supposed the scene was laid in hell, and 
 all the hideous screams of the performers denoted 
 pangs of tortured infidels. 
 
 Muhammad, for his mother's sake, abhorred the 
 English; and yet he loved his mother, who was of 
 that race. He reconciled these warring passions by 
 supposing the existence of a race of Muslims in the 
 British Isles. 
 
 One day, when he was ten years old, he came home 
 with a face of indignation, demanding, " O my 
 mother, is it not quite true that the English nation 
 is as strong and warlike as the French, and nowise 
 subject to the lord of Paris? " 
 
 " True, O my son." 
 
 " By Allah, that is what I said. We were argu- 
 ing, a dozen of us, after school. They all opposed 
 me, stating that the French were much the greater 
 and more civilised. I, sure of my contention, asked 
 a master who stood by. He foolishly asserted that 
 the French were stronger. I informed him of his 
 error in all courtesy, when, to my horror, he began 
 abusing me, detained me in the school an hour against
 
 VEILED WOMEN 237 
 
 my will, and himself remained to gloat on my im- 
 prisonment. 
 
 " Nor is that all. No sooner was I free than I 
 went to the house of the principal and made com- 
 plaint of the injustice. He said the malefactor! 
 - thus escaping from the question, that it was a sin 
 for true believers to quarrel for the sake of infidels. 
 I told him there were Muslimin among the English, 
 as witness my own mother, who is one of them. He 
 had the rudeness -to declare thou art a convert. It 
 was all that I could do to keep from plucking at his 
 beard. I shall ask my father to remove me straight- 
 way from a school where lying insults and oppression 
 thus prevail." 
 
 " Thy principal spoke truth. I am a convert," 
 murmured Barakah, hanging her head through fear 
 of her son's shame. 
 
 " Merciful Allah ! " cried Muhammad, greatly 
 shocked. 
 
 But in a moment he recovered from the blow. 
 Kissing her hand, he murmured fondly: 
 
 " Be not downcast, O beloved, it is not thy fault. 
 My comrades sneer at converts ; but no matter. I 
 shall still maintain that thou wert born in the right 
 way. Thou art still my dearest mother, loved and 
 honoured." 
 
 The lover-like, protecting air became him rarely.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 NEWS from the world of men reached the harim 
 like voices from the street without. From time to 
 time some item, interesting them, was cried in tones 
 of censure or approval; but always in a manner of 
 abstraction. This apathy arose from centuries of 
 strict seclusion, in which, through change of dy- 
 nasties and strife of factions, the privilege of the 
 harim had been respected. The women felt that 
 politics could not come near them; the government 
 which ruled the men was none of theirs. A realm 
 within the realm, they had their own excitements, 
 their own concerns of life and death and amorous 
 crime. Events the most important failed to move 
 them, while trifling breaches of religion or old custom 
 caused a vast commotion in that nursery of fanati- 
 cism. 
 
 One day, when Barakah was out driving in her 
 carriage, she was stopped near Abdin palace by the 
 pressure of excited crowds and heard the sounds 
 of angry tumult. The driver backed the horses and 
 then turned. On reaching home she asked the eu- 
 nuch of the matter. 
 
 He shrugged : " It is the soldiers, O my lady. 
 238
 
 VEILED WOMEN 239 
 
 They are angry at the coming of the Frank com- 
 missioners." 
 
 It was then that she presumed to question Yusuf, 
 and learnt that two commissioners, one French, one 
 English, had come to take control of the finances of 
 the country. The Khedive, that jovial libertine and 
 spendthrift, was now bankrupt. The Europeans, as 
 his creditors, assumed the reins. 
 
 " But why the English ? " questioned Barakah 
 with irritation, for up to then the French alone had 
 been a power in Egypt. 
 
 " Wallahi, just because their men are clever," was 
 the answer. " They bought up all our Sovereign's 
 shares in the canal. Their guile is great, but greater 
 Allah's mercy, for the arrival of these Franks is good 
 for me. Knowing both their languages I am put 
 forward to receive them, and so rise in honour." 
 
 In fact, a few days later he was made a Pasha. 
 
 But Barakah could not regard the case thus philo- 
 sophically. The intrusion of the English frightened 
 her. If they should ever come to lord it in the 
 country her degradation would be unendurable. She 
 confided her displeasure to Muhammad, who took an 
 interest in politics as schoolboys will. He bade her 
 have no fear; the Muslims would destroy them 
 presently. The women told her God would intervene. 
 But things went rapidly from bad to worse. 
 
 Since a French force under Bonaparte had entered 
 Cairo, before the era of Muhammad Ali, no such 
 fury had possessed the world of women as that which
 
 240 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 seized them on the deposition of the Khedive Ismail. 
 Whatever touched the majesty of El Islam excited 
 them; vile infidels had here contrived the downfall 
 of a Muslim ruler. And there ensued a host of in- 
 novations, in which the hand of unbelief was plainly 
 visible. 
 
 The slave-trade had been formally abolished under 
 Ismail, to please the Franks, but with the customary 
 wink of that facetious monarch. The trade con- 
 tinued gaily with his sly connivance. Now, in his 
 son's reign, it began to be suppressed in earnest. 
 The slaves themselves were loud in lamentation. 
 When it was known that slavery itself was menaced, 
 the harim chattered like ten thousand angry parrots. 
 
 " The Lord have mercy on us ! It is gross im- 
 piety," screamed Fitnah Khanum. " Does not the 
 august Coran lay down strict rules for the control 
 of slaves? Is it not therefore Allah's will that they 
 exist? " 
 
 " The trade in slaves is holy," cried Gulbeyzah ; 
 " bringing every year a thousand converts out of 
 heathendom. If some are slain, it is no matter, 
 since the death of heathens is uncounted, like the 
 death of beasts. Without the cruel raids, the blood- 
 shed, the survivors had not known salvation. Praise 
 be to Allah, they cannot suppress the trade in us 
 white people, since a father's right to sell his child 
 resides in nature. Only since the English meddle do 
 we hear such wickedness." 
 
 Besides the slave-trade, good old customs were
 
 VEILED WOMEN 241 
 
 abolished one ceremony called the trampling, in 
 particular, in which a sheykh, renowned for piety, 
 was wont to ride on horseback over strewn believers. 
 Some people thought the world was coming to an 
 end, and looked for the appearance of the final 
 prophet. The times were full of omens, portents, 
 monstrous births. The French and English, in col- 
 lusion, gave command in Egypt; the monarch was a 
 puppet in their hands. The apathy of men amazed 
 the women looking on. The good Khedive appeared 
 a devil to those hot non-combatants ; rebellion a plain 
 duty upon all believers. They prayed for a de- 
 liverer to be raised up; and in the absence of the 
 prophet whom they half expected, applauded the 
 exertions of a simple soldier, who ventured to oppose 
 the wicked rulers. 
 
 With the exception of some Turks, who sneered 
 from pride of race, the whole harim acclaimed Arabi 
 from his first appearance as a champion. The 
 women viewed the question very simply. Here, on 
 one hand, was a man who wished to free the land 
 from foreign interference, whose cry of Egypt for 
 the Egyptians, must mean Egypt for the Muslims, 
 since the Copts were nobody ; on the other, an infirm, 
 if not a wicked, ruler who was letting all the priv- 
 ilege of El Islam be torn away. In vain their men 
 assured them the Khedive was a good Muslim, and 
 only deferential to the Franks from sheer expedi- 
 ency; that Arabi's faction was the work of clever 
 rascals, and boasted not one man of solid parts.
 
 242 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 They took religious ground and would not listen. 
 They taught their children to admire Arabi. Mu- 
 hammad, now a student in the school of war, assisted 
 by his faithful Ali, fought five boys who dared to 
 ridicule the peasant soldier. Though beaten many 
 times the two did not give way, though Ali, for his 
 own part, would have fled thrice over. But Mu- 
 hammad was indomitable. Bruised and bleeding, he 
 returned with fury to the charge, till his opponents 
 fled in pure religious terror of such dauntless rage. 
 A few weeks later the whole land was cringing be- 
 fore Arabi's power. And then excitements followed 
 thick and fast. Muhammad brought his mother all 
 the latest rumours. One day it was: 
 
 " Great tidings, O my mother ! All the Franks 
 are flying! Ali and I have been to watch them at 
 the railway station. Such a crowd ! The faithful, 
 past all patience, have risen up at Tantah and 
 Iskenderiyeh and slain thousands of them." 
 
 A number of the loyal Turks were also flying. 
 Aminah Khanum and Bedr-ul-Budur came to take 
 leave of Barakah. They were bound for Alexandria, 
 in the train of the Khedive, and thence would take 
 ship for Constantinople if things grew no better. 
 Muhammad, when informed of their departure, 
 rendered praise to Allah. 
 
 " They are vanquished," he remarked. " But 
 would to Allah that we had more Turks on our side. 
 These fellahin, though braggarts, are great cowards. 
 They need the whip to urge them into battle. I,
 
 VEILED WOMEN 248 
 
 who am half a Turk and half an Englishman, cannot 
 endure the sluggishness of this Nile mud." 
 
 The boy forgot the portion of his blood which was 
 derived from Fitnah Khanum, his paternal grand- 
 mother. It was Nile mud of the thickest, but it 
 did not show in him. All hot and noble counsels 
 moved him to enthusiasm; the lukewarm and the 
 philosophical enraged his soul. Stupidity or inso- 
 lence in an inferior he could not brook. If his com- 
 mands were not obeyed at once and with intelligence, 
 he struck hard with the first instrument that came to 
 hand, and called down Allah's wrath on the offender. 
 The old Pasha was delighted by those outbursts, as 
 showing the commanding spirit of his Turkish race. 
 
 " When all these low-born troubles have passed 
 over, we must procure him some small government," 
 he said to Yusuf, who acquiesced with a pathetic 
 smile. He had not that supreme contempt for the 
 Egyptian rebels which kept his aged father calm 
 amid the storm. He held a good position, and he 
 feared to lose it ; whereas his father had retired from 
 public life. 
 
 Barakah delighted in her son's account of the 
 disorders. His excitement and the animation of 
 each glance and gesture provided her with pictures 
 upon which she brooded in the vacancy of summer 
 days. The air which drifted through her lattice 
 was oppressive, the sunlight like a furnace fire with- 
 out; the voices of the street complained of dust and 
 heat ; the ceaseless buzz of flies benumbed the brain ;
 
 244 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 the call for water rang incessantly through all the 
 house, and even Umm ed-Dahak felt too weak to 
 talk. But Barakah was happy, since Muhammad 
 spent much time with her, finding her conversation 
 more congenial to his patriotic mood than that of 
 Yusuf. In his absence she lay still and smoked, and 
 quenched her thirst at frequent intervals, taking scant 
 notice of her little daughter the only other of her 
 many children who had managed to survive the second 
 year. Umm ed-Dahak loved the child and schooled 
 her privately, telling her stories of man's love and 
 woman's duty, and teaching her to pose and ogle in 
 the proper way. But for the rest she was of no 
 importance; Muhammad's known affection for her 
 was her only merit. 
 
 One afternoon Muhammad came in with a mien 
 of wild excitement and, having kissed his mother's 
 hand, cried out: 
 
 " Most dreadful news ! O horror ! O revenge ! 
 The English have destroyed Iskenderiyeh with their 
 cruel guns ! The English only, since the French, 
 more honourable, fled from the hateful sight with 
 tears of shame. Simply because the forts were be- 
 ing mended, and work was not relaxed at their com- 
 mand. But, praise to Allah, we have hurt them also. 
 Quite half their fleet has been destroyed by our brave 
 fire. After this, we give no quarter no, by Allah ! 
 It is holy war. Muhammad Tewfik is proclaimed a 
 scoundrel. Our Arabi is Dictator. The army is to 
 be augmented fourfold by forced levies. I met a
 
 VEILED WOMEN 245 
 
 boy, no older than myself, who goes to fight. I go 
 this minute to implore my father to let me likewise 
 join the army in the field." 
 
 " Thy age is but fifteen. O Lord, he must not 
 go ! " cried out his mother in an agony of apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 " I am a man full-grown, proficient in all exercises 
 that belong to war. As young as I are going. 
 Think, it is against the English, O my mother thy 
 vile enemies ! " 
 
 Embracing her without a thought for her despair, 
 he left her in great haste to find his father.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 YUSTJF PASHA was upon the point of going out when 
 his son was shown into his presence in his private 
 room. He smiled upon the stripling's prayer to be 
 allowed to fight, but said: 
 
 " No, no, my son. Thou art too young as yet. 
 Wait till the war is ended and then join the fray." 
 
 With that he patted the boy's cheek, bestowed 
 his blessing on him, and went out, little guessing 
 that he left despair behind him. A carriage waited 
 for him at the door. An armed slave scrambled up 
 beside the driver. It was the hour of sunset. Two 
 months since the ways would have been merry at that 
 hour. But now the passengers were few and fully 
 armed; they looked suspicious and, where groups 
 were formed, the talk seemed guarded. A curse had 
 fallen on the happy city. The sunset blushed on her 
 high roofs, the crescent flashed on all her spires and 
 domes, and in the gullies which were streets lay 
 depths of shade; yet no one felt the rapture of the 
 evening. 
 
 Yusuf, lolling in the carriage, gnawed his black 
 moustache and cursed the revolutionaries from his 
 heart. He had attained the wisdom which comes 
 
 246
 
 VEILED WOMEN 347 
 
 easily to middle age, hated disturbance and distrusted 
 novelty. The nervous passion which had marked his 
 youth still dwelt in him ; but he reserved its trans- 
 ports for the calls of private life; having another 
 wife besides the Englishwoman, and two concubines, 
 whom he kept in the provincial centre whither public 
 business often called him. Politics had been for him 
 a well-ruled game, on which a man would be a fool 
 to waste vitality. As a functionary, he had lounged 
 on sofas, telling beads, dictating orders to his secre- 
 taries, at ease except when called before superiors; 
 until this military rising scared his soul. Its swift- 
 ness and success seemed downright fiendish. 
 
 One day a painstaking, obedient native officer had 
 been selected by the Khedive Ismail to organise a 
 riot hostile to the Frank commissioners. He seemed 
 so trusty and discreet that Ismail forbore to execute 
 him for the trifling service. Within two years he 
 was the idol of the native soldiers, the spokesman of 
 their grievances against the foreign Turks ; in five, 
 he was the incubus and dread of Egypt, first 
 Minister of War and now Dictator. That first em- 
 ployment recommended him to schemers as one who 
 did not fear to lead rebellion. Straightforward and 
 excitable, extremely zealous in whatever charge he 
 undertook, he was thrust forward by the clever ones 
 to posts of hazard. His prompters, Asiatics, saw 
 the bounds of his intelligence and thought to keep 
 him in their hands, a priceless instrument. But 
 they had not allowed for the inflation of the African,
 
 248 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 who, being once exalted, swelled and swelled until 
 his greatness overawed its very founders. 
 
 An honest man and a good Muslim, Ahmad 
 Arabi lacked the cleverness of the conspirator; nor 
 was he one. The sordid plots which guided his 
 career were spun behind him; while he pressed on- 
 ward with clear brow and conquering smile a 
 doomed man, in the view of calm spectators. 
 
 Yusuf had known Arabi for some years and liked 
 him personally ; but the Khedive Muhammad Tewfik 
 was his friend from childhood. Entreated by the 
 agitators to take office with them, he had referred 
 the question to the good Khedive, who begged him 
 to accept the post thus offered, that he (Muhammad 
 Tewfik Pasha, Lord of Egypt) might have one friend 
 among his so-called servants. Tied by his duties, 
 he had not fled to Alexandria with the Sovereign ; but 
 remained behind in an absurd position, a member 
 of the rebel government which he abhorred. He 
 was now upon his way to meet some other Turks 
 thus stranded, to decide on some safe line of future 
 conduct. 
 
 The rendezvous was at his father's house, where, 
 in the great reception-room, he found a score of men 
 assembled. All had the faces of conspirators except 
 his father, a very old man now, who bade them wel- 
 come as to some court function. 
 
 " Where is my son Hamdi ? " asked the patriarch 
 upon the dais, peering round upon the red-capped 
 and black-coated throng.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 249 
 
 " He is not with us. He has joined the fellahin. 
 He dared not tell thee," answered Yusuf sadly. 
 
 " Well, well," remarked Muhammad Pasha, with 
 benignity. " Boys will be foolish ! In Allah's name 
 I bid you welcome, O my friends. It is well known 
 that I myself despise these upstarts and have told 
 their leader my opinion to his face. Less old, I 
 should have spent my life and fortune for the young 
 Khedive, whose ancestor, the great Muhammad Ah", 
 raised my house to honour ; as it is, I pray to God to 
 grant him victory. But his dependence on the Eng- 
 lish likes me not; and God forbid that I should in- 
 fluence your counsels. You have, each one, his life 
 and fortune to protect, his duty to decide towards 
 El Islam." 
 
 He stopped, and an uneasy silence reigned for 
 quite a minute. It was broken by a man exclaim- 
 ing, " They have set up a tribunal in each town with 
 power to ruin or to kill a man on mere suspicion. 
 Hear the wording of a document which I received 
 this day." 
 
 With that, he took a paper from his breast and 
 read aloud its contents a call in truculent, in- 
 flated language upon the patriot Mahmud the son 
 of Hafiz to show his fervour by a contribution to the 
 war fund; failing which, he would be prosecuted as 
 a foe to Egypt " for the public safety." 
 
 " Aha ! " laughed the old Pasha in his thin, cracked 
 voice. " A French model, by my beard ! For men 
 who would eschew all foreign influence ! That is the
 
 250 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 hand of Tulbah, not Arabi. The mountebanks! 
 The silly children apish imitators ! " 
 
 " By your Excellency's leave the matter is ex- 
 tremely serious for me at least," groaned out the 
 owner of the notice. 
 
 "Thou wilt make the contribution?" inquired 
 Yusuf. 
 
 " Better flee,'* remarked another. 
 
 And then they all began to talk together in 
 low whispers with frightened glances round the room, 
 for spies were everywhere. Flight was now hope- 
 less, every one agreed; nothing remained but to 
 feign ardour in Arabi's cause, give up communica- 
 tion with the loyalists at Alexandria, and pray for 
 the usurper's overthrow. 
 
 " They cannot last, I tell you," chuckled the old 
 Pasha. " These fellahin are quite unfit for govern- 
 ment. The young Khedive has been too kind. He 
 has not whipped them. My son and I were present 
 when his father warned him to execute these men, his 
 creatures, who had tasted power. A sad mistake, by 
 Allah ! For, Allah knows, we do not want the Eng- 
 lish in this land. My life-work, that of all the old 
 diplomatists, has been to stave off European inter- 
 ference, by compliments, by guile, by small conces- 
 sions. O Allah, let me die before the evil day ! The 
 Lord preserve us from the domination of the infi- 
 dels ! " 
 
 The old man dropped his hands and hung his 
 head.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 251 
 
 " Better the English than this present anarchy," 
 another murmured. " Already the whole land is 
 overrun by gangs of brigands. The streets here in 
 the capital grow dangerous. There is no order kept 
 except among the soldiers. All trade, all enterprise, 
 is at a standstill, and every public undertaking goes 
 to ruin. Already all the people hate Arabi." 
 
 " The Lord deliver us," said Yusuf, " from him 
 and from the English both. A dreadful quandary ! " 
 
 When he went forth to his carriage, still in wait- 
 ing, he told his slave to have his pistols ready, and 
 himself examined the revolver which he carried. He 
 wrapped a shawl about his face to pass unrecognised 
 and, thus protected and disguised, drove through the 
 darkling streets, where every wayfarer betrayed the 
 like anxiety. Only the street-dogs went about their 
 work as usual, prowling along the walls in search of 
 offal. 
 
 At his own door a man accosted him. It was one 
 of his paid spies. He led the way across the hall 
 into his private room. 
 
 " What news ? " he questioned. 
 
 "May Allah turn it to thy good!" the spy re- 
 plied, with his profoundest reverence. " I have it 
 from a member of the new Committee that your 
 Highness is marked down as a suspected notable. 
 They say it may mean destitution, even death." 
 
 " I thank thee," murmured Yusuf and dismissed 
 the man. Directly he was gone he called Ghandur 
 and said:
 
 252 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " Didst thou not tell me, O beloved, that thou 
 hadst some relative a member of the new Committee 
 for the Public Safety? " 
 
 " Yes, O my lord ! The person is my father's 
 brother, a small merchant." 
 
 " Where is their place of meeting? " 
 
 " I can show it thee." 
 
 " Do they meet every day ? " 
 
 " I think so, but will ascertain." 
 
 " Good. I shall wait upon them in the morning. 
 At daybreak take ten pounds out of the treasury and 
 carry it to thy relation to bespeak his favour." 
 
 " Has aught untoward happened? " 
 
 " Untoward ? Listen ! " Yusuf told the story. 
 
 " Merciful Allah ! How can such things be ? " 
 exclaimed Ghandur. " We are the greatest in the 
 land, they filthy upstarts. How much does my 
 good lord propose to give? " 
 
 " A thousand pounds were not too much to save 
 my life." 
 
 " Deign but to hear my counsel ! Give a hundred 
 and ask leave for thy son to join the army. He is 
 prostrated by thy late refusal. His going will prove 
 more than any gift of money that thy heart is with 
 the cause which, Allah knows, may be the right 
 one, since our lord has chosen to put trust in infidels. 
 His mother even wishes it, to heal his chagrin. She 
 sent for me and asked me to entreat your Excellency. 
 We have good friends within the army who will see
 
 VEILED WOMEN 253 
 
 that he is kept from fighting. My son shall go 
 along with him, to be his servant." 
 
 Ghandur, the simple creature, was in tears. 
 
 " By Allah, I will think about it," murmured 
 Yusuf. 
 
 Five minutes later he repaired to his son's room, 
 revived the lad, and passing thence to the haramlik, 
 told Barakah that her request was granted. She was 
 half stunned, for she had counted on his obduracy. 
 
 Not noticing her dazed condition, for his mind ran 
 still on puzzles of diplomacy, he added: 
 
 " Thou, who art English, O my sweet one, inform 
 me of that nation ! Are they harsh as conquerors ? 
 What is their custom with regard to vengeance? Do 
 they burn and ravish, or merely punish those who 
 have borne arms against them? It is important I 
 should know beforehand if they win the day." 
 
 Barakah stared at him vaguely for a moment; 
 then bursting into tears, exclaimed: 
 
 " Cut short thy life ! O most unfeeling father ! 
 O appalling prospect! I would sooner die a thou- 
 sand deaths than see them conquer." 
 
 " Merciful Allah, are they so fanatical? " gasped 
 Yusuf, with a face of great dismay. " I meant not 
 to alarm thee, O beloved. I was thinking only of 
 myself, how to behave in case things happened so, 
 which God forbid ! " 
 
 But Barakah thought only of their son.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 " A SPLENDID victory at Kaf r ed-Dowar ! A thou- 
 sand infidels despatched to Hell, and not a single 
 blessed martyr gone to Paradise ! " cried Umm ed- 
 Dahak, entering her lady's presence on a summer 
 evening. " Ghandur has got the news-sheet, and 
 craves leave to read it to thee." 
 
 The lady ordered him to be admitted instantly. 
 Muhammad and his servant Ali were at Kafr ed- 
 Dowar. Drawing her head-veil so as to leave one 
 eye visible, she listened to the short triumphant 
 notice, which began and ended with " the praise to 
 Allah!" 
 
 " The praise to Allah truly ! " she suspired. " Not 
 one was killed." 
 
 Ghandur assured her then, as he had done a score 
 of times, that Muhammad, with the blessing of the 
 Highest, ran no danger. By arrangement with the 
 leaders he was kept at work in the trenched camp, 
 away from fighting. But her anxiety was not 
 allayed, her boy was venturesome and, burning as 
 he was to fight, might break through rules. 
 
 Every evening in Arabi's journal there was news 
 of some fresh triumph, either at Kafr ed-Dowar, by 
 Alexandria, or on the banks of the Canal, where the 
 
 254
 
 VEILED WOMEN 255 
 
 main force of the English was now operating. She 
 heard it said on all hands that the war would soon be 
 over. Yet, though every one abounded in exultant 
 phrases, no single soul appeared exceptionally cheer- 
 ful ; and she herself did not disguise her sorrow. The 
 absence of Muhammad was a constant pain. She 
 gave attention to her little daughter fitfully. 
 
 The weather was intensely hot, the town a desert 
 full of dismal noises. So many men had been com- 
 pelled to join the army, so many beasts of burden 
 had been pressed for transport purposes, that trade 
 was paralysed and traffic almost ceased. When she 
 drove out, the aspect of the streets dismayed her; 
 it was as if the city had been ravaged by a pestilence. 
 The European, Syrian, Armenian quarters were 
 utterly deserted, all the houses closed; and elsewhere 
 there was very little movement. In other summers 
 the harim had gone into the country, and Barakah 
 would gladly have drawn nearer to the seat of war; 
 but her husband vetoed the proposal instantly, the 
 country districts were unsafe and overrun by brig- 
 ands. Yusuf was irritable in those days. He had 
 his bed in the selamlik and seldom could spare time 
 to visit Barakah. 
 
 " I believe he has another woman somewhere," she 
 told Umm ed-Dahak in a hopeless tone. 
 
 " It is his right, by Allah," answered the old 
 woman ; " and no slight to thee, if thou wouldst view 
 it fairly, and throw aside the silly fiction of the 
 Franks. It is the nature of a man to have more
 
 256 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 wives than one, and a woman should no more resent 
 his doing so always provided he does not defraud 
 her than blame a cat for having several kittens 
 at a birth. Ibrahim, the father of the faithful, 
 Musa all the prophets till the crown of them (God 
 bless and save him) married more than one. Polyg- 
 amy was in the customs of the Jews and Christians 
 until they fell away from El Islam. Nay, a remem- 
 brance of it still exists among the Franks. For do 
 not their religious women dwell together in one house, 
 obedient to a rule like ours, attired like us, and call 
 themselves I ask pardon of the Lord Harim 
 Allah (the wives of God)? Rank blasphemy, by 
 Allah ! Yet it shows that the old rule is not entirely 
 lost." 
 
 Barakah was too disconsolate to be contentious. 
 Let Muhammad but return to her in safety and she 
 would not care though Yusuf took a thousand wives ; 
 but in his absence everything seemed grievous. 
 
 A real sorrow overhung the house of Yusuf; for 
 the old Pasha was fast sinking to the grave. Hamdi, 
 the hot disciple of Arabi, the poet of rebellion, 
 author of the famous calls to patriotism which were 
 printed every week in the official journal, was bowed 
 down by grief. He thought his siding with the mal- 
 contents had killed his father. 
 
 "But what was I to do? " he asked of Barakah, 
 to whom, as an old friend, he took his troubles. 
 " Their cries had fired my spirit. I could not keep
 
 VEILED WOMEN 257 
 
 silent. Na'imah tells me not to worry, yet I feel 
 most guilty." 
 
 Yusuf, too, was downcast and repentant. 
 
 " We have been like fools," he sighed, " wasting 
 in vanity the precious hours we might have spent 
 with him as if we thought that he would live for 
 ever. Now the end draws near, we can but beat 
 our breasts and curse our folly." 
 
 When Barakah went to the old palace to inquire, 
 she was struck by the despairing looks of all the 
 servants. A eunuch with a very woful smile con- 
 ducted her to Fitnah Khanum, who exclaimed at 
 sight of her: 
 
 " The praise to Allah, thou art come ! Our lord 
 has asked for thee. Murjanah was just going to 
 despatch a messenger. Come! Come at once! 
 There is no time to lose. He has refused to take 
 a potion which I had prepared. He will not let a 
 charm be hung upon him. He resigns his life to 
 Allah. It is the end." 
 
 Murjanah Khanum sat beside the bed, holding the 
 old man's hand. About the walls crouched many 
 black-robed women, waiting in silence, like a flock of 
 vultures. 
 
 " Here is the wife of Yusuf," said Murjanah, giv- 
 ing place to Barakah. 
 
 The Pasha spoke in French. His voice was faint. 
 
 " Madame," he said, " I am about to die, and I 
 am glad to be allowed to say adieu to you. Very
 
 258 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 often have I thought of you and of your life among 
 us. I feel a very grave responsibility. I trust that 
 you have been, upon the whole, content." 
 
 Barakah declared herself quite happy, and he 
 said, " Thank God ! " 
 
 " But you will not leave us yet ; you will recover," 
 she exclaimed. 
 
 " No, no, my cherished daughter. My last hour 
 has sounded. I have lived to see my lifework all 
 undone. The Christians always sought a war with 
 El Islam. We kept a calm face under insults, even 
 made concessions, as one gives a rabid dog a stick 
 to worry." For a moment the worn face resumed 
 its light of humour. " But now the war has 
 come . . . Those rash fanatics! . . ." 
 
 There rose a murmur in the room. 
 
 " The Grand Mufti comes," announced Murjanah 
 Khanum. 
 
 " Forgive me, dear madame. It is an old and 
 cherished friend," the dying man suspired, with a 
 faint smile. " Adieu ! Adieu ! " 
 
 And Barakah, with all the women save Murjanah 
 Khanum, hurried out into the passage. At the door 
 a tall and stately man brushed past her. His head 
 was so erect beneath the massive turban, his long 
 robe fell so straight from well-squared shoulders, 
 that it astonished her to see his beard as white as 
 snow. He passed into the room. The door was 
 shut. 
 
 A minute later, Murjanah Khanum uttered a loud
 
 VEILED WOMEN 259 
 
 cry; the Mufti came forth sobbing, with head 
 bowed ; the black-cowled women scurried shrieking to 
 the death-room, where they instantly began the dance 
 of death. They leapt and pirouetted, waving arms 
 above their heads, with frenzied cries. Barakah 
 was gazing horror-stricken at the sight, when some 
 one took her hand and whispered, " Come away ! " 
 
 It was Murjanah. 
 
 " I cannot bear these customs," she confessed. 
 ' The women of the country keep them in defiance 
 of religion. It is useless to protest; one has to 
 suffer. I am very tired, my dear; for I have not 
 slept for many nights. Indeed, my weariness and 
 grief are such that I can hardly look for rest save 
 in the grave." 
 
 Barakah took coffee in Murjanah's room, and 
 tried to comfort her. She too was sad. But her 
 despair was turned to joy when that same day 
 Muhammad rushed into her arms. He had been 
 called by telegram. She held him back from her 
 and gazed at him until he blushed and hung his 
 head. The uniform, the high-crowned fez, the 
 sword, the snowy gloves, embellished him. When 
 she had gazed her fill, she made him tell her of the 
 camp, his friends, his duties; and, started on that 
 theme, he talked for hours. 
 
 " If only I could be transferred to the Canal ! " he 
 sighed. " That is the real centre of the war. The 
 fighting where I am is empty show, and I am kept 
 from taking part in it. Day after day, I have to
 
 260 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 teach recruits, dull fellahin, who know not right 
 from left. Instruction seems to make them stupider. 
 I beat and beat them, till my arm aches. By my 
 sword and valour, I could often kill them! Think, 
 O my mother ! El Islam is menaced, armed infidels 
 have set foot in our land, and these men, Muslims, 
 will not learn their exercises ! " 
 
 His mother laughed at his impetuosity. She told 
 his grandfather's last words to her, and how he 
 feared the English would take hold of Egypt. 
 
 " There is no fear of that, in sh' Allah ! " cried 
 Muhammad. " Our faithful host will sweep them 
 off like fleas. I wish I had been there to reassure 
 the dear one. May Our Lord have mercy on him ! " 
 
 The funeral of Muhammad Pasha Salih was 
 among the greatest ever known, although the town 
 was empty. The harassed population flocked to pay 
 respect to one who had denounced Arabi a demon- 
 stration which could not be punished since sons of 
 the dead man nay, half his family acclaimed 
 the tyrant. In the front of the procession were led 
 sheep and bullocks to be slaughtered at the tomb, 
 their meat distributed among the needy in the name 
 of the deceased. Then came hired chanters of the 
 Coran, then half the male inhabitants of Cairo, walk- 
 ing, flanked by two thin lines of soldiers, then the 
 male relations, then a choir of boys shrieking an ode 
 in honour of the Prophet. Immediately behind these 
 moved the lidless coffin, carried on men's shoulders,
 
 VEILED WOMEN f 61 
 
 with its coloured pall, and then the females of the 
 family in shuttered carriages. A crowd of black- 
 cowled women of the city, whose wailing sounded 
 bird-like in the open air, brought up the rear. 
 
 The train, a mile long, wound out in the blinding 
 sunlight over the sandhill to the city of the dead, 
 from which at its approach the kites and crows went 
 up, affrighted. There ensued a period of forced 
 inaction, which to Barakah in the haramlik at the 
 mausoleum seemed interminable. The ceaseless 
 chanting in the tomb, the wailing of the crowd out- 
 side, attacked her nerves. Muhammad was to leave 
 again that evening, and every minute she was parted 
 from him seemed an hour. He was kept upon the 
 men's side of the tomb; nor would she see him till 
 they reached the house again ; she had first to drive 
 home in the stuffy carriage with Na'imah and two 
 of the late Pasha's daughters. It was maddening. 
 
 In fact, she saw him only for a moment, ere he 
 ran to catch his train. She wept a little at the dis- 
 appointment, but his visit had relieved her of a 
 weight of sorrow. She had only to despatch a tele- 
 gram and he would come again. Moreover, she was 
 now quite certain he was not in danger. 
 
 When told by Yusuf that her drives must cease, 
 because the horses had been taken for the army, she 
 did not complain, but hired a donkey when she had 
 to pay a call; nor could the prospect of a famine 
 frighten her. Her mind had rest. Each evening
 
 262 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 brought the news of an Egyptian victory. The 
 English would be driven out. Her son was safe. 
 Once more she joked and dreamt with Umm ed- 
 Dahak.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 AT Kafr ed-Dowar Muhammad was kept drilling 
 conscripts, relieving older officers who were re- 
 quired for actual fighting. Almost every day he 
 heard the boom of cannon, the stirring noises of 
 attack and skirmish; and often in his leisure mo- 
 ments he would perch in some high nook and watch 
 the flashes, the white puffs of smoke, dispersed upon 
 the green of level fields between the seacoast sand- 
 hills and the lake a pretty sight. Beyond the 
 plain of water skimmed by white-winged birds the 
 town of Alexandria basked in sunlit haze. Upon 
 the land-plain doves were wheeling round deserted 
 villages, kites and vultures hovered high in air. 
 Franks from the seaport rode out in the rearward 
 of the English troops, and from the vantage-point of 
 dykes and hillocks watched the operations through 
 their field-glasses. The assaults, as he had told his 
 mother, were not serious ; mere " f antaziyeh " the old 
 soldiers called them. The aim of the assailants was 
 to keep a portion of Arabi's troops from joining the 
 main army on the banks of the Canal, where war was 
 being waged in bitter earnest. Muhammad fretted 
 
 o o 
 
 at his dull employment. The atmosphere of strife, 
 the bugle-calls, the march of men, no longer satisfied 
 
 263
 
 264 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 him as at first. He wished to fight, and begged the 
 general-in-chief, who favoured him, being a close 
 friend of his uncle Hamdi, to move him to some post 
 of danger. The great one laughed and patted him 
 upon the back. 
 
 " We cannot spare thee yet from the recruits," 
 he said. " That work is useful, and it must be done. 
 Think, thou hast given us a thousand soldiers, none 
 like them for rigidity and speed of motion." 
 
 Muhammad hated the recruits, who still were 
 driven in by hundreds every day men past their 
 prime, and boys dragged from the wretched villages, 
 and active rogues caught hiding in some ditch or 
 patch of cane. The land had been already drained ; 
 the dregs were called for. And they were stupid, 
 dazed, those fellahin ; a flock of sheep has more in- 
 telligence! Muhammad, for whom soldiering was a 
 religion and every detail of the drill had sanctity, 
 was driven frantic by their apathy, their foolish 
 stare. Dancing with fury, he reviled their mothers 
 and beat them with his cane about the ears. 
 
 " By the Prophet, they are pigs ! " he told the son 
 of Ghandur, who served him in his tent and hung 
 upon his every word. " Here is El Islam in dan- 
 ger; they are Muslims; yet they yawn and gape if 
 asked to hold a gun. Ah ! if I had a hundred Turks 
 instead of them ! " 
 
 The son of Ghandur, who to please Muhammad 
 would, himself have put his head into a cannon's 
 mouth, was horrified at the behaviour of the con-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 265 
 
 scripts. That they could fail to see the light of 
 inspiration on Muhammad's brow was proof suffi- 
 cient of their utter baseness. For the same reason 
 he despised the generals. Muhammad was more 
 gifted for command than they, and yet they kept him 
 ever at this menial task. Had Muhammad or his 
 foster-brother even owned the leadership, Isken- 
 deriyeh would long since have fallen, and all the 
 English have been pushed into the sea. He dared 
 to proffer this opinion to his lord one evening. But 
 Muhammad in his wisdom answered: 
 
 " No, we cannot take the town, for this good rea- 
 son, that a portion of their fleet, unseen from here, 
 commands it, and would pour in shells to our de- 
 struction." 
 
 Ali received this information with head bowed and 
 thanks to God. He prayed the Maker of the World 
 to put some mind in the recruits in order that they 
 too might profit by such high instruction. 
 
 It was usual at that time for officers to handle 
 soldiers roughly on parade, caning them upon the 
 head and shoulders, kicking them, and heaping on 
 them every species of abuse. Muhammad might 
 be called indulgent as commanders went; but he was 
 over-much in earnest. His outbreaks lacked the 
 touch of humour which endears. Old soldiers might 
 have borne them with a laugh for the sake of his 
 enthusiasm, which was very evident. 
 
 But these were men who had been driven from 
 their homes like cattle, at the goad's point. For
 
 266 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 days they had been herded up in pens in a provincial 
 town, and there harangued by holy men and mad- 
 dened by religious shouting till they lost what little 
 wits remained to them and hardly knew a true be- 
 liever from an infidel. Arabi had proclaimed the 
 golden age; yet here they were imprisoned, hounded, 
 driven, and now subjected to the cuffs and insults of 
 a shameless boy. Huddling together, they looked on 
 with lowered brows, too scared to understand what 
 the young Turk was shouting. Arabi had pro- 
 claimed the Turks abolished. Where was reason? 
 They gave forth inarticulate harsh cries like fright- 
 ened beasts. 
 
 Each squad Muhammad handled seemed more 
 stupid than the last so stupid that one early 
 morning an inspecting general advised him, laugh- 
 ing, to give drill a rest, and take them to the trenches ; 
 they were used to digging. 
 
 Muhammad felt the order as a whip-cut ; he was 
 furious. The general despised his work as an in- 
 structor, whereas God knew what trouble he had 
 taken. It was all their fault. In the trenches he 
 allowed them to do nothing right, but shrieked out 
 contradictory orders emphasised by slashes of his 
 cane. Slowly it dawned on them that he was quite 
 alone; the place was hidden by high banks from 
 supervision. 
 
 The daily pageant of attack was then in progress. 
 The crackle of a volley came from no great distance. 
 Muhammad implored Allah to direct the bullets so
 
 VEILED WOMEN 267 
 
 as to kill them all, for they were worse than infidels. 
 He did not notice the changed manner of their 
 breathing, nor the new fire which smouldered in their 
 eyes. 
 
 At a blow across the face, accompanied by fright- 
 ful insults, a burly fellow seized Muhammad's wrists 
 and deftly tripped him. The boy lay on his back 
 bereft of speech. His captor knelt upon his belly, 
 while the others crowded round like cattle interested. 
 He could feel their breath. 
 
 " Hear, O my little son ! Swear by the Sayyid 
 Ahmad to be civil. It were best for thee." 
 
 Muhammad, with his pride undaunted, answered: 
 " Sinful hog ! I swear to have thee thrashed with 
 the nailed whip and then decapitated. O Muslimin! 
 Do you not know that this is mutiny, an awful 
 crime? " 
 
 " Then we must finish him," remarked his captor, 
 with a sigh. " With his own sword ! Here ! 
 Quickly, while I stop his screeching." 
 
 The speaker passed his hand down on Muham- 
 mad's mouth, while another drew the sword and 
 plunged it several times into the prostrate form. 
 They watched until the last convulsions ceased; then 
 piously observed : " Our Lord have mercy on him ! 
 There is no power nor might save in Allah, the High, 
 the Tremendous ! " 
 
 " By Allah, he could bite ! " observed his first as- 
 sailant, shaking blood from his right hand. The 
 palm was bitten through. He stopped to bandage
 
 268 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 it ; and then they made a litter with their spades and 
 so conveyed the body back to camp with wailing. 
 
 " The darling of our souls is dead," they chanted. 
 " Slain by the infidels, whom we repulsed. Our 
 brother, Abdul Cader, too, is wounded in the 
 hand." 
 
 The He was quite transparent, yet it passed un- 
 questioned. The high commanders shrugged and let 
 it go. There were a hundred men concerned, with 
 Allah knew how many sympathisers. They dreaded 
 a stampede of all the conscripts in the camp. 
 
 When Ali, mad with grief, demanded justice, he 
 was told to hold his tongue. The general was pro- 
 foundly grieved; he shed some tears, and swore that 
 every honour should be paid to the remains. A tele- 
 gram was sent to Yusuf Pasha announcing that his 
 son had died a martyr, and that the blessed body was 
 upon its way to Cairo. Within an hour of death it 
 had been dressed for burial. It was carried in a fine 
 procession to the railway, where a special train a 
 locomotive and an open truck was waiting. The 
 corpse was laid down in the truck, and covered with 
 some tent-cloth; and Ali sat beside it, while the train 
 sped hooting on past empty villages, where only a 
 few children played upon the dust-heaps, a few 
 women stood in doorways with hands shading eyes, 
 past palm-groves and the fields of cotton and of 
 sugar-cane until the citadel rose up before him in 
 the evening sky.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 THE news was broken gently to the stricken mother. 
 Yusuf, overcoming his own grief, came in at noon 
 and sat an hour with her, leading her up by little 
 steps to view the glory that their son had died a 
 martyr for the Faith. When the announcement 
 came at length, the fortitude he had assumed gave 
 way. He wept profusely. But Barakah was tear- 
 less. She sat rigid, with pale eyes staring vaguely 
 in a face of stone. She asked that Ali, as soon as 
 he arrived, might be sent in to her ; and that was all. 
 Umm ed-Dahak came and mumbled on her hand, 
 moaning endearments which she did not hear. Then 
 Ali was announced. At the same instant dreadful 
 wailing filled the house. She drew her head-veil 
 round her face (the movement had become instinc- 
 tive) when he fell before her, pouring forth his awful 
 story, concluding with the words : " The funeral 
 sets forth this minute, O my lady. His body will not 
 keep with all those wounds." 
 
 And then her anguish passed the bounds of suf- 
 fering; she moved and looked and spoke, but felt no 
 more. 
 
 Her women, half demented, danced around her. 
 They tore their flesh with finger-nails, defiled their 
 
 269
 
 270 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 faces, and raised an endless chant, reviewing all the 
 charms and virtues of the dear one, his mother's love, 
 the blackness of the world, each verse concluding 
 with a shriek of " O calamity ! " It was the 
 triumph-song of death. 
 
 Robbed of the corpse, the funeral over, they 
 thronged her chamber, keeping up the ghastly round, 
 the death-chant, in the hope to give her tears. Her 
 petrifaction filled them with dismay. To women 
 who accept with rapture all life's chances, whose 
 custom is to celebrate each blow that strikes them 
 and magnify it as a witness to the power of God, 
 her stony apathy appeared uncanny. They in- 
 creased their efforts, while Umm ed-Dahak poured 
 into her ear a song of memory designed to loose the 
 frozen fountain of despair. 
 
 " She was the fairest daughter of the seed of 
 Adam. See her now! Her feet, her finger-tips 
 dropped perfume. She had the grace of flowers, 
 the voice of turtles. Now behold her ! In a moment 
 blind and deaf and dumb and paralysed. And why? 
 Alas, O thou who askest! it is because the sunshine 
 of her life is fled. We saw her follow his dead body 
 to the grave. As the cow pursues the calf that has 
 been reft from her, so did she follow blindly with a 
 noise of lowing. She has not even strength to beat 
 her face. Her breath is painful, husky like the voice 
 of doves ; its sound is all the sobbing of the childless 
 mother. Say, O beloved, what is in thy mind? Dost 
 thou remember his tarbush, his yellow slippers, the
 
 VEILED WOMEN 271 
 
 loveliness of all that touched his body, which was per- 
 fumed amber? There was a little mole upon his 
 breast well known to thee. O Allah, waken memory, 
 or grief will slay her ! " 
 
 Barakah saw and heard as in a trance. She 
 thought herself in Hell, bound fast and gagged 
 while devils taunted her. She was tortured by the 
 memory of English winter evenings, of walking back 
 from church in the long train of orphans, the patter 
 of their feet resounding sadly. That dreariness ap- 
 peared a state of bliss compared with this luxurious 
 life enclosed in heat. She longed for a cold wind, 
 with rain in it. Remembrance of a garden under 
 sunset came to her; she saw once more a cool ver- 
 andah with long windows open on an English draw- 
 ing-room, and heard the earnest voice of Mrs. 
 Cameron entreating her to stay and save her soul. 
 This was God's punishment. Her life from then till 
 now had been all forwardness and self-indulgence. 
 While basking in it she had been aware that it was 
 baneful. A thousand awful faces rose to sneer, 
 " We warned you ! " The glimpses she had had of 
 horrid depths, the scenes of bloodshed and the tales 
 of cruelty, seemed now emphatic warnings of this 
 end. She had sunk downward till she had no faith 
 nor virtue more than beasts have. Her all was in 
 her son, whom God had killed. Crushed, maimed, 
 defrauded, she was flung upon the earth, the scorn of 
 men and angels and the sport of fiends. 
 
 As by degrees her sense returned to her, she
 
 272 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 looked about her with strange eyes and tried to 
 think. But every effort was a sword that pierced 
 her heart. One morning, peering dully through 
 her lattice, she saw a gay pavilion in the yard, and 
 leading to it rows of masts with lanterns hung be- 
 tween. They were erected for the meytam, or recep- 
 tion for the dead. She had seen them often when 
 she visited great houses; but now her mind attached 
 no meaning to them. It was two hours later, in the 
 middle of the function, that her sense returned. A 
 mighty gust of grief, a cry of " O calamity ! " swept 
 through the crowd of black-clad women in her great 
 reception-room. It roused her mind. She saw, and 
 was alarmed. What was she doing? What was all 
 this crowd of people? Were they human? 
 
 The great saloon was full of women. The ladies 
 sat up on the dais with flourished handkerchiefs, 
 beating their breasts, their faces, at each burst of 
 woe. Dependants crouched upon the ground and 
 rocked incessantly, with foaming lips. Some faces 
 wore a hideous fixed grin; some mouthed continu- 
 ally. The hired performers stood and chanted with 
 obscene contortions, or squatted on a mat and wailed 
 in chorus. The words " O my calamity," recurring 
 in a sort of running chant without coherence, shook 
 the assembly like a tempest-blast. And all the while 
 dainties were being handed round by weeping serv- 
 ants, and accepted by the mourners as fresh cause 
 for grief. 
 
 An ague of intense repugnance seized on Barakah.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 273 
 
 She felt that she must fly from this inferno, must 
 keep the hope of flight before her resolutely, or her 
 soul was lost. It was as if a hostile hand com- 
 pressed her throat. She struggled, was determined 
 to get free. Towards that end she battled with in- 
 stinctive cunning. 
 
 After the meytam, when she seemed exhausted, her 
 brain, enamoured of this hope, was planning madly. 
 
 " Take heart, O moon of moons," the servants told 
 her. " In sh' Allah thou shalt bring forth sons in- 
 stead of him." 
 
 She strove to smile. 
 
 Her resolution was to leave her husband and her 
 little daughter, the comfortable house, the easy life, 
 to stray alone and homeless, back to Christian lands. 
 There she would enter some religious order, and 
 spend the residue of life in prayer for Muslims. 
 
 Every one was kind. The tender sympathy of 
 Yusuf, though himself hard stricken, might well have 
 won her heart had she possessed one. Her heart was 
 dead and buried in the grave. The ladies and her 
 servants tried at first to cheer her; but when they 
 found their efforts useless, let her be. Only Umm 
 ed-Dahak remained with her constantly. Discreet 
 as ever, she kept silence for long hours, watching 
 her mistress with a doleful mow. They thought her 
 too depressed to take a step unaided, had not the 
 least suspicion of her wish to flee. It was, besides, 
 a time of national anxiety, when every one who could
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 went out to seek the news, and those imprisoned 
 listened to the noises of the street. 
 
 One day, in the full heat of noon, when men are 
 sleepy, she sent out the old woman on an errand; 
 and went and kissed her child, Afifah, who was fast 
 asleep. Then, having made sure that the slave-girls 
 were not moving, she returned to her own room and 
 donned a common habbarah, which she had some- 
 times worn when she went out with Umm ed-Dahak. 
 From the store of money Yusuf had entrusted to her 
 she took sufficient to defray her fare to France, and 
 hung it in a bag around her neck. 
 
 Thus furnished, she stole out through the selamlik 
 hall. No eunuch challenged; the doorkeeper was 
 snoring on his couch within the entry. Beside him 
 lay the best part of a water-melon.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 BARAKAH had not made many steps outside the house 
 before she was completely lost. Although for six- 
 teen years her home had been in Cairo, she had never 
 walked in the streets before. Which was the way? 
 She could not tell, but went on bravely, hoping for 
 some guide. At last she met a donkey-driver with a 
 pleasant face. In answer to her timid hail, he 
 smiled delighted and praised his Maker for the hon- 
 our of her patronage. " To the railway sta- 
 tion," she enjoined at mounting, and he answered 
 " Ready ! " 
 
 Away they went, arousing echoes in the stony 
 alleys, the driver shouting as he ran beside the 
 ambling beast. Barakah felt exhilarated by the 
 change of motion, the little spice of danger when 
 they dashed round corners, or charged some group 
 of wayfarers with warning cries. The first stage of 
 her flight would soon be over; and once on board the 
 train, she thought, escape was sure. 
 
 The streets were empty even for that hour. 
 Scavenger dogs slept undisturbed in every spot of 
 shade. The persons they encountered seemed to have 
 no business, but stood about in groups conversing 
 glumly. On the wide, dusty square before the rail- 
 
 275
 
 276 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 way station groups were many. A little crowd beset 
 the station doors. These were all closed, to Bara- 
 kah's amazement. The building looked deserted. 
 
 " Ask when the next train starts for the sea- 
 coast," she ordered her attendant, who addressed a 
 shout to persons standing near. 
 
 " The sea-coast ? Allah knows ! It may be 
 never ! " The reply was shrugged. " A great fight 
 has taken place. The end has come. The Eng- 
 lish fell upon the camp at daybreak yesterday 
 or this morning, Allah knows ! The rebel army was 
 dispersed like chaff. The leader the arch-traitor 
 escaped hither on an engine, and is in the town 
 now somewhere, herding with his kind. It is clearly 
 seen how foully he deceived us, seducing us from our 
 allegiance with the promise of success." 
 
 " Praise be to Allah that his reign is ended," said 
 another. " If the English were but true believers, 
 one would bless them." 
 
 " Nay, the tidings are not certain," cried the third 
 with anguish. 
 
 " As certain as the sun is hot upon my reins this 
 minute. I have it from a man who saw Arabi. The 
 rascal's face was yellow as a corpse." 
 
 Barakah's mind received no more than the initial 
 statement. The way that she had meant to take 
 was closed against her. 
 
 " Whither, my lady ? " asked the donkey -boy, with 
 willing smile.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 277 
 
 " Far, far away towards the sea-coast. Any- 
 where ! " 
 
 " Ready ! " he laughed. " It is for thee to order. 
 By Allah, we will go to Gebel Caf if thou desire it." 
 
 He smote his donkey, and they jogged along once 
 more, out through new suburbs to the open fields. 
 The sun was an armed foe, the dust a persecutor; 
 her habbarah and face-veil made a sheath of fire. 
 The donkey-boy kept looking at her with compas- 
 sion, smiling encouragement whenever he could meet 
 her gaze. He thought her mad, and so indulged her 
 fancy, assuring her that it would not take long to 
 reach the sea. But when she murmured of the heat 
 and wished to rest, he showed immense relief. 
 
 " That is the best," he cried. " Wait till I find 
 some pleasant shade for thee. See, yonder is a tree. 
 There thou shalt rest till the great heat is past, and 
 then, at thy command, we can resume the journey." 
 
 Dismounting under leaves, she sank upon the 
 ground and wept despairingly. The tears, which 
 bitter grief had failed to wring from her, flowed 
 freely for her impotence. Escape was hopeless. 
 Her project now appeared the last absurdity. The 
 change of clothes, the change of manners, now pre- 
 sented difficulties which she felt that she would never 
 have the strength to overcome. The donkey-boy's 
 consoling words, his friendly grin, were teasing. 
 She sent him to fetch water from a village near at 
 hand. He came back with a pitcher and two slabs 
 of bread; which so revived her spirit that she once
 
 278 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 more saw beyond the moment and conceived a 
 plan. 
 
 She would wait till nightfall and then seek the 
 city of the dead, to die on her son's grave, if Allah 
 willed it. At least she would spend all the night 
 in prayer imploring Allah's mercy for him in the 
 name of Christ. 
 
 She had sat a long while, cross-legged, gazing 
 straight before her, her hands locked in her lap, when 
 a soft voice disturbed her. The donkey-boy was 
 plucking at her sleeve. 
 
 " The heat is spent," he told her. " Best be mov- 
 ing ! It is back into the city, not so ? thy com- 
 mand? Much better than to journey to the sea, like 
 this, without provision. Say, which way?" 
 
 Barakah pointed a direction listlessly. She had 
 no wish to enter Cairo before dark, so chose a long 
 way round, among the fields. 
 
 Soon the sunset reddened all the plain, stretch- 
 ing their shadows far before them on the dyke. The 
 citadel upon its height was hotly flushed one minute, 
 the next ash-grey and lifeless like a skull. It lived 
 in her imagination as a monstrous spider which held 
 her with its web and drew her in. 
 
 The donkey-boy beside her prattled ceaselessly. 
 
 " O lady, I will not forsake thee no, by the 
 Prophet, never, till thy mind is healed. Do I know 
 the cemetery El Afifi? Wallahi! I can guide thee 
 thither. Not a bad idea ; for Allah comforts those 
 who visit the deceased. By the Sayyid Ahmad, thou
 
 VEILED WOMEN 379 
 
 art as my mother. May God cut short my life if I 
 desert thee in thy present state." 
 
 The lad's support was of some comfort to her. 
 
 In the first blue of night, when daylight lingers 
 in the memory, they were following a sandy road 
 towards the city, when a noise as of the sea arose 
 behind them. The donkey-boy was first to hear it. 
 He stood still and listened, holding up his hand. It 
 seemed approaching on the road behind them. He 
 looked puzzled; then suddenly let fall his hands, and 
 made a bound. 
 
 "It is the army ! Come, O my lady ! We must 
 hide ourselves. Hold fast ! " He made the don- 
 key gallop for a hundred yards, then led it down 
 into a patch of cane. Peeping out between the stems 
 they saw vague forms in clouds of dust approaching 
 on the dyke above. The roar became the jangle of 
 accoutrements, the roll of heavy carriages upon the 
 road and murmuring voices. 
 
 Innumerable ranks of horsemen passed, dust- 
 stained and weary, with faces resolutely strained to- 
 wards Cairo. Barakah saw them as the figures of 
 a dream. Their silhouette against the sky appeared 
 familiar. The words with which they cheered their 
 tired horses rang on memory. 
 
 " It is the English," whispered her companion 
 hoarsely. 
 
 " The English ! Allah, help me ! " murmured 
 Barakah. Until that moment she had lost remem- 
 brance of the war.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE streets by night were full of people, in striking 
 contrast with their emptiness at noon that day. The 
 mosques were all alight inside, and from the glimpse 
 which Barakah obtained through open doorways ap- 
 peared crowded. 
 
 She saw men making towards them through the 
 press, embracing precious bundles, with the look of 
 fugitives. 
 
 " Their fear is of the English," said the donkey- 
 boy. " Who knows what they will do by way of 
 punishment ? " 
 
 But the look on all the faces when a ray of light 
 revealed them, the note of the vast murmur lapping 
 the whole city, was rather of relief and comfort 
 than anxiety. To hide away their treasures was a 
 mere precaution which only madmen would neglect 
 in presence of a conquering host; but men were 
 thankful for the coming of the English, which meant 
 an end to anarchy and wild suspense. 
 
 " Wallahi, they are warriors," one orator was de- 
 claiming at a street corner. " The fight was far 
 away at daybreak, and now behold them here among 
 us in the citadel. Wallahi, they are mighty! They 
 smite hard one blow and all is said. Wallahi, 
 
 80
 
 VEILED WOMEN 281 
 
 they are not of those who loiter. They appeared 
 among us like a vision of the rising night; they de- 
 manded the keys of our strong places as of right 
 divine. The people in the street stood still and 
 gaped on them, rubbing their eyes to ascertain that 
 they were not asleep. May Allah make them merci- 
 ful. The praise to Allah ! " 
 
 The donkey-boy, who had been looking at the 
 lady's eyes at frequent intervals as if in expectation 
 of a change of purpose, asked at length. 
 
 " Whither shall I conduct thee, O my mistress ? 
 Is it not thy wish to return to the house ? " 
 
 " I have no house," was her reply. " Did I not 
 tell thee? To the El Afifi cemetery!" 
 
 " Not by night ! Hear reason, O my lady ! " he 
 besought her. " Tell me where thou dwellest, that 
 I may conduct thee thither ! " 
 
 " I go to the cemetery, as I told thee. It is nec- 
 essary. If thou art weary of my service, I will pay 
 thee and go out alone." 
 
 Barakah's tone grew plaintive, almost tearful. 
 The resolution in her words was mere bravado. She 
 knew that she was utterly dependent on this friendly 
 youth, whose company alone kept up her courage. 
 From the moment of her turning back she had felt 
 stupid, useless, relying on this boy to bring her to 
 the cemetery, where she hoped to die. It seemed a 
 certainty that if she prayed her utmost, full as her 
 heart was, the vexed soul must leave the body, and 
 the prayer by sheer brute force become acceptable.
 
 At thought of being baulked of her self-sacrifice, the 
 boy's help failing, she began to whimper. 
 
 " Nay, dearest lady, weep not ! " he entreated. 
 " By Allah, thou shalt neither walk nor go alone. 
 I will conduct thee thither; but it may be necessary 
 that we wait till morning, since the way is lonely 
 and the haunt of ginn. See here, before us is my 
 mother's house. Deign to go in and rest awhile, and 
 take refreshment, while I feed the donkey. I will 
 make inquiries. If it is possible to go to-night, I 
 swear to take thee. If not, thou canst rest here un- 
 til the dawn." 
 
 They had stopped before a doorway in a narrow 
 alley. He went a little way into the gloom and whis- 
 pered : 
 
 " O my mother ! " 
 
 " Is it thou, Selim? " came back the answer. 
 
 " O my mother, come at once ! I have a lady, a 
 great lady in disguise. She has run mad through 
 grief in these bad times, and wants to go out to the 
 cemetery. Receive her in thy house a minute, feed 
 her, talk to calm her; while I discover if the way is 
 safe." 
 
 " The cemetery ! Go not thither. Best come in 
 and sleep." 
 
 " The lady is distraught with grief. I reverence 
 her like a parent. She is absent from the world ; 
 she does not hear us. I think that she is going to 
 the tombs to pray. It were a good deed to conduct 
 her thither."
 
 VEILED WOMEN 383 
 
 " True, wallahi ! May Allah heal her soul, the 
 poor one! These be dreadful times!" 
 
 A woman came out to the doorway, holding up 
 an earthen lamp. 
 
 " Deign to enter, O my sweet," she called seduc- 
 tively. 
 
 Selim assisted his employer to dismount. 
 
 " Go in and rest," he whispered. " My mother 
 and my sister are alone in there. Thou canst un- 
 veil. The dwellings of the poor are all haramlik. 
 In a little while I shall return and call thee from with- 
 out. I go but to make sure the ways are safe." 
 
 The room in which she found herself was small 
 and stuffy. It was lighted only by the little lamp 
 the woman carried. Barakah was glad to loose her 
 veil a while. She refused the food, but drank the 
 water, which the women offered, and listened to their 
 cordial blessings with a sense of dreaming. Her 
 prayer was that the boy might not decide to wait till 
 morning. Desire to reach the tomb at once ob- 
 sorbed her life. Deprived of it, she would have had 
 no further being. Her prayer now took the Chris- 
 tian form, and now the Muslim; the two religions 
 growing tangled in her tired mind. At length the 
 boy's voice sounded: 
 
 " Deign to come, O lady. The ways are thronged, 
 they tell me, as in Ragab. To-night is not as other 
 nights, it is well seen." 
 
 With praise to Allah she went out once more. 
 But with its object now assured, her mind grew dull.
 
 284 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 It was as if suspense alone had held it wakeful. It 
 lost the comprehension of its purpose, regained it 
 with an effort, and then let it go. 
 
 They passed beneath an ancient gateway. The 
 city was behind them. Still there was no solitude. 
 Groups of people crossed the sand in all directions. 
 It was a moonless night. The many lanterns mov- 
 ing in the darkness seemed reflections of the stars 
 which shone like gems of many facets in the silky 
 sky. Barakah saw them both alike as golden insects 
 swarming in the cup of a great purple flower. At 
 moments, her head swimming, she mistook the earth 
 for sky, and had the sense of moving upside down. 
 
 " There is the cemetery," said her guide. His 
 whisper seemed to her a long way off. Nor did she 
 see the city of the dead till they were in its streets, 
 which seemed mysterious. The very stars looked 
 sinister above the frowning domes, from which a 
 blacker darkness seemed to emanate. The many 
 crescents looked like horns against the sky. Bats 
 flitted past her; from the distance came a jackal's 
 howl. What had she come to do here? She could 
 not remember. " To pray," she told herself, but 
 that meant nothing. She strove with all her might 
 to recollect. Then in a flash remembrance came to 
 her; it bore her on, excited, to the mausoleum. She 
 dismounted, and then, upon the threshold, she for- 
 got once more. She entered, shuddering, too dazed 
 to question why the gate was left ajar, and turned 
 instinctively towards the women's quarters. A step
 
 VEILED WOMEN 285 
 
 or two and she stood still in deadly terror, hardly 
 venturing to breathe. There was a light upon the 
 men's side; beasts were tethered in the court; she 
 heard a sound of digging and men's voices. Her 
 thought was, " They expect me, and have dug a 
 grave." As soon as fear would let her, she fled back 
 to where the guide was waiting. 
 
 " There are people. We must fly ! Make 
 haste ! " she whispered. 
 
 He helped her to remount, and they retraced their 
 steps. The solemn thoughts which had possessed 
 her mind gave place to rattle of dry bones and imp- 
 ish laughter. A merry dance was going on within 
 her brain, as mad as could be, though her senses were 
 quite clear clearer than ever they had been before, 
 she knew exultantly. She rode out from the place 
 of tombs across the sandhills towards the city. 
 
 " Hist ! " said her companion suddenly, and 
 stopped the donkey, hanging on to its tail to prevent 
 braying. " There are men without a lantern 
 robbers ! I hear voices." 
 
 She strained her ears in the direction pointed. 
 
 " Am I not acknowledged sheykh of all the 
 thieves? " some unseen man amid the darkness was 
 exclaiming angrily. " Was it not I alone who had 
 the wisdom to foresee that every man would seek to 
 hide his wealth this night ? It is light work for you ; 
 they fly like conies at a shout, leaving their treas- 
 ure, and the light for you to count it. Why then 
 grumble that I sit here and receive the gold? Some
 
 286 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 one must hold it for fair distribution. Say, have I 
 ever wronged a man among you of one small piaster? 
 See, yonder comes another lantern. Go, do your 
 work, and say no more to me." 
 
 "Stay, O my lady! For the love of Allah," 
 moaned Selim. " They are robbers, murderers, the 
 worst of ruffians." 
 
 But Barakah had urged the donkey forward; the 
 laughter in her brain deriding fear. She headed 
 straight towards the voices, waving her left arm and 
 shouting madly. She heard a shriek of " The 
 afritah ! Help, O Allah ! " and saw men running as 
 if fiends pursued them. Her next sensation was a 
 dive into the sand. The ass had stumbled. Selim 
 assisted her to rise, and murmured reassuring words 
 which made her cry. 
 
 Remembrance of her little daughter overcame her. 
 She had prayed to Christ to guard her child before 
 she recollected that the prayer was useless. There 
 was no mercy for disciples of the Arab prophet. She 
 reeled and would have fallen had not Selim caught 
 her. As it was, she sank upon the ground, refusing 
 to remount or take another step. 
 
 The boy, resigned, sat down beside her, holding 
 his donkey by the halter-rope. They were upon 
 the trodden plain below the citadel. Lying upon 
 her back, she saw a blackness rising till it took the 
 shape of bastions, walls, towers, surmounted by a 
 dome and needle-pointed minarets. Gazing at this 
 and at the stars she fell asleep.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 287 
 
 When she awoke it was still night. The donkey- 
 boy was snoring on the ground hard by. A chill 
 and a strange silence hung about her. The stars 
 above were throbbing violently as if about to burst in 
 showers of light. Her grief returned on her like an 
 ague. " O Lord, have mercy upon me ! " she ex- 
 claimed, and groaned aloud. 
 
 " What ails thee, O my sister ? " said a voice so 
 sweet, so unexpected in its nearness, that it stopped 
 her heart.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 FROM the shadow of a mass of houses close at hand 
 emerged the figure of a man in flowing robes, and 
 glided towards her. For the moment she supposed 
 it was an angel. Again the sweet voice thrilled her, 
 asking : 
 
 " What ails thee, O my sister? Art thou 
 wounded? May Allah heal and comfort thee in thy 
 distress ! " 
 
 She knew him then and felt a sudden craving. 
 
 " O Tahir, sing to me ! " she moaned. " Thy 
 voice is healing. Canst thou still sing when thy de- 
 light is dead?" 
 
 " Who art thou, lady ? " He peered hard at her. 
 
 " I am the English wife of Yusuf Pasha." 
 
 " True ; it is true," he murmured, recollecting. 
 " I heard that she had fled the house distraught with 
 grief. . . . Hearken, O my lady, I am waiting here 
 for the muezzin of the Sultan Hasan mosque, to ask 
 his leave to call the Dawn instead of him. Victori- 
 ous infidels are on the height above us; and no man 
 can predict the future of this land. It is a black day 
 for the Faith, may Allah help us! Our souls are 
 humbled, weeping tears of blood. I lay upon my 
 bed, but could not sleep for thinking on this grief. 
 
 288
 
 VEILED WOMEN 289 
 
 My heart and brain were full of singing, sad and 
 noble. I felt the need to sing to God alone. And I 
 vowed within my soul that none but Tahir should 
 call to prayer this dawn at yonder mosque within 
 the shadow of the citadel which holds our shame. 
 Now till my vow is paid I cannot guide thee. I beg 
 thee enter the muezzin's house and rest till my re- 
 turn. . . . Ah, here he comes." 
 
 The thud as of a wooden bolt withdrawn, the creak 
 of a door opening reached their ears. The singer 
 ran in the direction of the sound. She heard him 
 coaxing the muezzin, who replied upon a yawn: 
 
 " With honour and with reverence, O Tahir ! It 
 is thine to order." 
 
 They had both drawn near to Barakah, entreating 
 her to go indoors and rest, when the donkey-boy, 
 aroused at last, rushed on them with stick raised. 
 
 " Where is my lady ? " he cried out dementedly . 
 " For the love of Allah, harm her not ; her mind is 
 troubled!" 
 
 They had some ado to reassure the lad, who was 
 but half-awake. Tahir renewed his prayer to Bar- 
 akah to enter the muezzin's house without delay. 
 She cried to be allowed to wait and hear his singing. 
 
 " Well, stay with her, O Mustafa ! Bring cush- 
 ions out! And thou, O best of donkey-drivers, seek 
 the house of Yusuf Pasha, inquire for one Ghandur, 
 and bring him hither ! " 
 
 The boy bestrode his ass and disappeared into the 
 darkness ; the singer strode off , eager to perform his
 
 290 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 vow. The muezzin fetched some cushions from his 
 house, and led the lady through the gloom until the 
 minaret of Sultan Hasan loomed before them, and 
 Barakah could distinguish its projecting gallery. 
 Then he spread the cushions as a couch, himself sub- 
 siding on the ground behind her. 
 
 Barakah waited for what seemed long hours, so 
 great was her impatience, like the sharpest hunger. 
 Then, suddenly, when she had almost ceased to hope, 
 a high, sweet note, sustained most wonderfully, filled 
 her ear. It caused a parting of the lips, a melting 
 rapture. It broke in a cascade of melody. Then 
 came the long sweet note again, not held this time, 
 but uttered often with a sobbed insistence. And then 
 the song soared up to heights of praise, or hovered 
 over depths of sorrow; she was lost in it. Uprising 
 from the fount of hope in sadness, it soared to cer- 
 tainty of endless joy. The sound was no made mu- 
 sic, but a soul poured forth in glorious melody, as 
 spontaneous and unerring as the song of birds. The 
 greatest singer in the world stood there unseen in the 
 suspended gallery, and sang his heart out to the 
 praise of the Creator, watching the dawn's first 
 gleam above the eastern hill. 
 
 On Barakah the song fell like a voice from heaven. 
 She beheld great light. Her grief, her terrors, be- 
 came natural shadows. There was one God for 
 Christian and for Muslim. Beyond the striving and 
 the hatred waited peace and love. 
 
 The professional muezzin on the ground behind
 
 VEILED WOMEN 291 
 
 her was rocking with enjoyment, gasping, sobbing: 
 " Enough, O Tahir ! Of thy kindness, stop ! 
 Wouldst kill me quite? I faint, expire! It is too 
 much of rapture! See me die! Praise be to Allah 
 for the faith of El Islam. Praise to the benign 
 Creator who has vouchsafed a voice to creatures for 
 His glory ! " 
 
 Another whispered : " That is no man's song, but 
 the song of Israfil. Surely the last day is dawning. 
 Praise to Allah ! " And yet another murmured : 
 " Praise to Him who sleepeth not nor dieth, the 
 Merciful, the Compassionate, the Light of Lights, 
 the Living King ! " 
 
 Selim the donkey-boy had come up with Ghandur. 
 They spoke no word to Barakah until the last note 
 died. By then the pallor of the dawn shone on them 
 faintly, showing the look of sadness which succeeds 
 enchantment. Ghandur then came and kissed the 
 hand of Barakah, begging her of her kindness to re- 
 turn with him. 
 
 He and Selim together lifted her on to the donkey. 
 
 As they left the square the English bugles sounded 
 on the height above.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 QUICKLY the daylight spread and filled the streets; 
 while overhead successive darts of light pierced the 
 incumbent darkness and dispelled it, till the sun's 
 first ray reddened the minarets and plunged the 
 streets in azure shade. Men came out from their 
 doorways as from tombs, and went about their busi- 
 ness listlessly. Among the lower classes it was quite 
 expected that the English would take vengeance on 
 the town that day. The people did not care ; they 
 were in Allah's hands, and gave Him thanks because 
 the war was ended. 
 
 For Barakah the city wore its usual air; the only 
 wretched figure was her own. She was being led 
 back to a life which had become intolerable. After 
 her tragic flight of yesterday, how ignominious was 
 this meek return ! Ghandur, beside her, talked of 
 the extreme anxiety in which her flight had plunged 
 the Pasha's family. 
 
 " O my lady, how hadst thou the heart to cause 
 us such despair? Think of it! One like thee, alone 
 and in the streets at such a time, when all authority 
 is an abeyance, and the English host may come at 
 any moment with the lust of conquerors! A hun- 
 
 292
 
 VEILED WOMEN 293 
 
 dred men were searching for thee through the night. 
 My lord the Pasha thought that grief might lead 
 thee to the place of tombs, and he himself went 
 thither with the slaves enjoined to hide our valuables. 
 Praise be to Allah, thou art found at last! Take 
 comfort, O my lady! Often and often have I 
 grieved for thee, alone among us ! And when our 
 great calamity befell alas, that son of mine should 
 bear such evil tidings ! I prayed to Allah to re- 
 veal to thee His boundless mercy. For it has no 
 limits. For all who suffer in this world He will re- 
 dress the balance. Even the unhorned cattle, O my 
 lady! It is written." 
 
 Barakah heard these consolations as a dreary mur- 
 mur. 
 
 " I am taking thee to the late Pasha's house, to 
 the great lady," he informed her. " My lord con- 
 siders it will be less sad for thee." 
 
 The great lady meant no other than Murja- 
 nah Khanum. Recalling the authority Murjanah 
 wielded, Barakah imagined she was being led to pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Two eunuchs came forth, bowing, crying, " Praise 
 to Allah ! " They helped her to dismount, and both 
 supported her. A minute later she had passed the 
 harim screen. Her brief excursion in the world was 
 ended. She was once more caged. 
 
 Imagining her crime to be as great as that of 
 Christian nun in breaking convent, and knowing that 
 Murjanah Khanum could be ruthless, she expected
 
 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 torture ; instead of which she was caressed and put to 
 bed. 
 
 She had her lodging in Murjanah's rooms, was 
 dosed by Fitnah, comforted by Leylah Khanum. 
 The younger ladies came as visitors and talked to 
 cheer her. Old Umm ed-Dahak, not to be excluded, 
 crouched by her bed and crooned as to an infant. 
 
 " Why are you all so kind to me ? " she asked one 
 day. " I tried to flee, I tell you, to escape to Eu- 
 rope yet you pet me ! " 
 
 " All things are pardoned to great grief," replied 
 Murj anah. " It was not thy fault, O poor one ! 
 Would to Allah I could show thee what I see more 
 clearly than I see thee in this room the power of 
 God, His mercy all around us. Fain would I hear 
 thee give Him praise for thy misfortune. He sees 
 and knows ; we fancy ; it is weak to strive. Think, 
 O my fawn, my lily, thou hast still one child; thou 
 hadst thy boy for thy delight for fifteen years. 
 More fortunate than I who lost all mine in infancy! 
 What peace can come to woman in thy case who does 
 not offer up her will to God? The men have prom- 
 ise of a certain paradise; we have no certitude of 
 what awaits us. Yet we are not dejected, for we 
 know God's mercy, and leave the future gladly in 
 His hands. We women are not bargainers, we serve 
 for love; and the mercy of the Highest cannot fail. 
 Thou hast been brought up otherwise to prouder 
 thoughts. Humble thy soul if thou wouldst find re- 
 lief."
 
 VEILED WOMEN 295 
 
 "I proud?" cried Barakah. "Thou, the proud- 
 est woman I have ever known, canst call me so? I 
 am not as thou art strong and dauntless, cruel in 
 thy resignation. I am feeble and afraid." 
 
 " May Allah strengthen thee and drive out fear ! " 
 
 Barakah had lost the vision which had come from 
 Tahir's singing a vision which ignored divergences 
 of race and custom. Without her son the harim life 
 was senseless ; she held the Muslim faith in secret 
 dread; and longed for sentimental Christian people. 
 Yusuf, her husband, proved the soul of kindness, yet 
 she had almost hated him in her revolt from all his 
 race. 
 
 One day he told the ladies in her presence : 
 
 " The English are not bad. They take wise 
 measures for the land's redemption. They have 
 asked me to take office, and I have a mind to do so." 
 
 It was the first time she had heard the English 
 mentioned since her reimprisonment. In fact, the 
 Turkish pride had suffered cruelly from this intru- 
 sion of a European power, the more so that the 
 natives of the land acclaimed it. Though the Eng- 
 lish had restored their party in the State, the Turks 
 in Egypt gnawed their lips and could not speak of 
 them. 
 
 A new way of escape appeared to Barakah. She 
 could obtain an audience of the English rulers and 
 announce her longing to return to Christianity. 
 She pined for the ideals of Christian lands, the in- 
 dependent life of women, and their varied interests.
 
 296 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 Here she had lost her value, having lost her son. 
 She would soon be an old woman, a mere worn-out 
 animal. 
 
 Directly rhe conceived this plan, she grew more 
 cheerful, and even felt some kindness for the harim 
 walls. While making her endeavour to find out from 
 Yusuf the names of Englishmen of influence, their 
 character and reputation, she wanted to make cer- 
 tain he would be consoled. 
 
 " Light of my eyes," she whispered, nestling to 
 him, " I have quite outgrown my foolish prejudice. 
 I beg thee now to wed another wife. The son I 
 bore to thee is dead, and I grow old." 
 
 " Wallahi, thou art still delicious," he replied gal- 
 lantly ; but all the same he thanked her, seeming much 
 relieved. 
 
 Perceiving that the anguish of her grief was past, 
 the ladies let her go to her own house. 
 
 " Remember my advice," said old Murjanah in 
 farewell. " Behold, my eyes grow dim, my days are 
 numbered. I speak not frivolously like the young. 
 Give up thy will. That is to islam truly. May 
 Allah grant thee resignation, which is strength."
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 SHE had not been in her own house a day, before 
 she said to Umm ed-Dahak: 
 
 " Wilt thou do me a great service ? " 
 
 " Wallahi, that will I ! Even saving thy pres- 
 ence one most sinful ! " 
 
 " And canst thou keep a secret from the seed of 
 Adam?" 
 
 " Not only that, but from the walls and air." 
 
 " I want a letter carried to a great one of the 
 English." 
 
 " I seek refuge in Allah ! " gasped the old woman, 
 grinning widely. " Knowest thou it is a crime un- 
 heard of that thou askest of me? Fie upon thee! 
 Wallahi, if I did my duty I should leave thee 
 straightway ! " 
 
 But far from flying from her mistress she came 
 nearer. Her wrinkles ran to smiles; her old eyes 
 twinkled. 
 
 " Come, let us reason ! " she remarked, as she sat 
 down, and, fingering her lady's hand, began the ar- 
 gument. 
 
 " If thou desirest recreation of a shameful kind, 
 let me discover some devout believer. Thus the sin 
 is less. Or better still, approach thy husband, tell 
 
 297
 
 298 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 him thou art weary, implore him of his mercy to re- 
 lease thee, with a portion of thy dowry. No man 
 would refuse the offer after years of marriage. Then 
 I could find thee a good Muslim, for diversion. But 
 a Frank an unbeliever ! Ask me not ! It is too 
 horrible!" 
 
 " By Allah, my desire is not the thing thou think- 
 est ! " Barakah made answer gaily. " This Eng- 
 lishman is one I knew in childhood. I would speak 
 with him. The matter is no other than my lord's 
 advancement, though if he knew I meddled he would 
 kill me!" 
 
 " Swear to that ! But swear to that ! " cried Umm 
 ed-Dahak, much excited, " and I can do thy errand 
 without sin. But if thy mind is for a Frank, I 
 could unearth thee Muslims of that race; though 
 most of them are idiotic from hashish." 
 
 " My errand is to this one only ! " 
 
 " Good, I go." 
 
 The lady clapped her hands and called for writing 
 things. The letter taxed her mind for hours ; the 
 fitting phrase, the correct tone, eluding one who for 
 so many years had penned no word of English. At 
 last it was completed. She implored the great of- 
 ficial, of his mercy, his great kindness, to receive an 
 English lady, long immured in the harim, where she 
 had suffered greatly. She wished to make a most 
 important statement (this she underlined) and begged 
 him to secure the utmost secrecy. She would not 
 write her name for fear the letter should be inter-
 
 VEILED WOMEN 299 
 
 cepted, but would reveal it to him with the other 
 matter when they met. The document, enveloped 
 and sealed down, was put into the hands of Umm 
 ed-Dahak. After two hours, she brought back the 
 answer, " To-morrow at the fourth hour," given her 
 by word of mouth. She had not seen the English- 
 man himself. 
 
 " Wallahi, we will make thee beautiful," she 
 chuckled. 
 
 Then Barak ah reviewed her prison with affection. 
 She went from room to room, observing for remem- 
 brance. In one, the slave-girls crouched round an 
 old hag who told a story. The light which fell like 
 powder from the lattice singled out their teeth and 
 eyeballs, and woke a blue sheen in the copper vessels 
 round the wall. In another, the child Afifah stood 
 up on the seat beside the lattice, feeding pigeons; 
 the wife of Ghandur, standing by, supported her. 
 A little wicket in the tracery was open. 
 
 " H'm-h'm-h'm-h'm ! " Afifah gave the pigeon- 
 call, and held out crumbs. A fluttering cloud of 
 white and iridescent down, pink, shell-like claws, and 
 avid beaks and eyes, beset the lattice from without, 
 its shadow watering the child's delighted face. 
 
 Barakah retired without disturbing them. She 
 had a hankering to take the little girl with her. 
 But no, Afifah was a child of El Islam. Like all the 
 rest, she would condemn and curse her mother. 
 
 Then visitors arrived Gulbeyzah and Bedr-ul- 
 Budur and Barakah waxed sentimental in her
 
 300 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 talk with them, recalling all the pleasant hours which 
 they had spent together. Both were now grown 
 obese and double-chinned. Nothing remained of the 
 resplendent beauty which had marked their girlhood 
 save the eyes, which made them still attractive when 
 they wore the face-veil. She pitied them, with 
 anguish for herself; and kissed them fondly when 
 they rose to go. 
 
 Then Yusuf came to spend an hour with her. She 
 thanked him with sincere emotion for his never fail- 
 ing kindness to her during all those years. 
 
 " It is nothing but thy due," he answered, greatly 
 touched. " Thou art alone among us, and my cher- 
 ished wife." 
 
 That night the very howling of the street-dogs 
 sounded sweet; the starlight at her lattice seemed a 
 humble friend. Her heart bled for the parting which 
 was very near. For not a doubt existed in her mind 
 but that the English, once informed of her desire 
 for Christianity, would snatch her from the Muslims 
 with a mighty hand. The power was theirs ; they 
 governed Egypt; and she knew from her remem- 
 brance that they were fanatical. They would wel- 
 come her conversion, and defend her. 
 
 In the morning Umm ed-Dahak bubbled over with 
 excitement. She accompanied her lady to the bath, 
 and bade the bath attendant take all measures to 
 enhance her beauty. She assured her mistress in an 
 eager whisper:
 
 VEILED WOMEN 301 
 
 " Trust Umm ed-Dahak, I have managed every- 
 thing." 
 
 She had given orders in her lady's name that the 
 harim carriage and a eunuch should be ready at a 
 certain hour. She and Barakah were driven to a 
 shop of good repute, famed for its stock of Prankish 
 boots and gloves, of which the harim ladies were en- 
 amoured as showing off their pretty hands and feet. 
 
 " Our business here may take some time an 
 hour, perhaps," she told the eunuch, who took po- 
 sition sentry-wise beside the entrance. The shop 
 possessed two doors. Making a trifling purchase, 
 they went out unnoticed, and found themselves within 
 a stone's throw of the public office which the Eng- 
 lish ruler had appointed for the interview. 
 
 The street in blazing sunlight was flowing with a 
 many-coloured crowd, which kept up such a jabber 
 that Barakah could not think clearly. The scene 
 she had rehearsed appeared ridiculous. Seized with 
 panic, she was anxious to turn back; but Umm ed- 
 Dahak at her elbow whispered courage. In a min- 
 ute she had entered a great doorway leading to a 
 wide stone hall, where soldiers lounged. One of them 
 came forward at a beck from Umm ed-Dahak. Then 
 the old woman went and squatted on the doorstep, 
 and Barakah, half dead with terror, was led on alone.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 " You asked for a private interview. It is a little 
 unusual, I believe, in this country; but I granted 
 your request upon the understanding that you have 
 important secrets to communicate, as stated in your 
 letter. Let me see ah, here it is ! " 
 
 The English official a broad-shouldered, fresh- 
 complexioned man inclined to baldness having 
 studied her appearance through a monocle, let fall 
 that weapon and, disturbing papers on his desk, pro- 
 duced the letter she had written to him, which looked 
 somehow pitiful. 
 
 " I am an English lady. My name is Mary 
 Smith. I did a very wicked thing. I turned Ma- 
 hometan, and married a Turkish gentleman, a Pasha, 
 here in Cairo. I want to leave him and return to 
 Christianity. I am an English lady, by name Mary 
 Smith; not what they call me. I am prepared to 
 take my oath that this is true, and Mrs. Cameron 
 can tell you I must get away ! " 
 
 " What is all this, and who is Mrs. Cameron ? In 
 what way does your private history concern me? I 
 beg you to pass on to the important statement which 
 you have to make." 
 
 " I ask your help to get away from the harim." 
 302
 
 VEILED WOMEN 303 
 
 At that the Englishman resumed his eyeglass and 
 surveyed her with a slight gape of amazement. 
 
 The scene of conversation was a large room, 
 sparsely furnished with a desk, a table and a few 
 plain chairs. The light from the high window shone 
 on Barakah who, to prove that she was really 
 English, had removed her face-veil. The critic's 
 wondering stare first made her conscious of the dis- 
 crepancy with her request of highly raddled cheeks 
 and lips, and kohled eyes the touches Umm ed- 
 Dahak had declared so beautiful. She was not a 
 European any longer. Her very words resounded 
 Avith a foreign accent. From the moment of her en- 
 tering the presence of this hateful man, she had been 
 persuaded of the folly of her errand, out of heart 
 with it. Her speech, when uttered, carried no con- 
 viction. 
 
 " Indeed, indeed, I am an Englishwoman," she 
 persisted, with a kind of whimper. " I want to get 
 away from here and lead a Christian life." 
 
 But while she spoke the words her hands were busy 
 readjusting the white muslin mouth-veil as a step 
 towards going. 
 
 The great official shrugged his shoulders. " Is 
 that all you have to say ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I mean, I know that I did wrong to 
 come here." She was quivering from head to foot 
 with shame. The act of sitting on a chair embar- 
 rassed her. She was completely out of touch with 
 English ways.
 
 304 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " Well, I don't quite see what I can do for you," 
 said her appraiser, in a tone of bland reproach. 
 " You see we are here as guardians of the laws and 
 customs of the country. We could hardly, therefore, 
 interfere in a case such as yours a harim quarrel. 
 As for the religious controversy, I can tell you we 
 avoid it like hot coals. Our one desire is to uphold 
 the institutions of the country. Really, my dear 
 lady, I think the only thing for you to do is to go 
 straight home and make the best of it." 
 
 At that she rose. He passed before her to the 
 door and held it open. She thought of offering her 
 hand, but his grand bow forbade it ; and she went 
 out in profound humiliation. 
 
 " Well, art thou happy ? " chuckled Umm ed- 
 Dahak, still believing that she was the servant of a 
 criminal intrigue. She prattled merrily till they re- 
 gained the carriage and were driving homeward, 
 when she noticed that her lady trembled and looked 
 sad. 
 
 " Alas ! " she cried. " My dove, my poor one, is 
 it so? Woe, woe for womankind! There comes a 
 time to all of us when love escapes." 
 
 But Barakah surveyed a wider disillusion. 
 
 Until just now she had been strong in the conceit 
 that she was different from Eastern women, recog- 
 nisably of higher race. From her dreams with Umm 
 ed-Dahak, built on memories of Mrs. Cameron's en- 
 treaties and the Consul's arguments, she had derived 
 the notion that she was of value to the English, who
 
 VEILED WOMEN 305 
 
 would fain reclaim her. Now that mirage, born of 
 the sleepy harim atmosphere, was swept away ; and 
 she was nothing. With English people, she would 
 always long for Orientals ; with Orientals, feel a 
 yearning for the life of Europe. 
 
 And in religion, likewise, she was nothing. A 
 Christian by conviction after years of scoffing, she 
 was doomed to play the part of a Mahometan, to 
 lose her soul. And she was glad to be returning to 
 the life so lately dreaded, the vision of herself in 
 English eyes had so appalled her. Well, she was 
 nothing, and her soul of small account. The harim 
 was her natural home; the teaching of the wise and 
 kindly Prophet her protection. She now beheld the 
 vanity of all her struggles, the vulgarity of much 
 concern about the future. God was merciful! In 
 self-annihilation there was peace. Thus through 
 her striving after Christianity she reached at last the 
 living heart of El Islam.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 IT was strange how, with her broken spirit, she re- 
 gained a kindly interest in all around her. She had 
 found the keynote of harim existence resignation ; 
 not merely passive, but exultant as an act of wor- 
 ship. The gross, full-blooded speech, the something 
 cruel in these women, which in the day of sentimental 
 pride had seemed intolerable, was but the natural 
 outcome of relentless vision. In the first fervour of 
 her self-abasement she stood beside the deathbed of 
 Murjanah Khanum, watched her last struggle, and 
 endured the death-room orgies without flinching. 
 Thenceforth she took up the old Muslim standpoint, 
 denouncing all the fallacies of Europe. Having 
 won from Yusuf the confession that he kept three 
 other women, she had them brought to the old Pasha's 
 palace, where she lived thenceforward, to rid his 
 dealings of the surreptitiousness which smacks of 
 vice. She received them sometimes in her rooms, and 
 took benignant notice of their children, but remained 
 aloof. They called her " the great lady," and de- 
 ferred to her. 
 
 When the festivals of visitation of the dead came 
 round, she would withdraw into the tomb for days 
 together, but showed no mournfulness at other sea- 
 
 306
 
 VEILED WOMEN 307 
 
 sons. When Englishwomen called on her (as some- 
 times happened, for Yusuf held a high position in 
 the Government), she spoke in stilted French, and 
 never hinted that she knew their language, or was 
 other than the thing she seemed a Turkish lady. 
 She felt assured that, had she carried out her plan 
 and fled to Europe after her son's death, she would 
 have gone mad in that sentimental atmosphere with 
 all her memories. More than the English, she dis- 
 liked some French and German ladies, who, with- 
 out renouncing their religion or their nationality, 
 had married Muslims. These, in their visits, showed 
 a curiosity, and used a tone of patronage, which was 
 offensive. Of races less exclusive than the English, 
 they kept their European friends, maintained their 
 liberty. They had no real conception of the harim 
 life. " 
 
 She was angry with her daughter when the latter 
 told her: 
 
 " At marriage I shall make my husband promise 
 to have me alone before I yield to him. It is be- 
 come the fashion in the noblest houses. Of course, 
 if I should fail to bear a son, I should release him." 
 
 " Endeavour to retain him by thy charms," the 
 mother scolded. " O foolish one, to make him prom- 
 ise is to make him sin. In following the madness of 
 the Frankish women, thou dost but court deception 
 in the Frankish manner. It all comes of the read- 
 ing of French stories without knowledge or intelli- 
 gence."
 
 308 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 It vexed her soul to see young girls forsaking the 
 old stately way to hanker for the trash of Europe, 
 which they misconceived. Afifah had no notion of 
 that mutual love and comradeship which is the sole 
 excuse for monogamic marriage ; she merely thought 
 it fine to be an only wife. When harim ladies talked 
 of feminine emancipation, they understood it to in- 
 volve licentiousness. Their genius was at once too 
 indolent and too direct ever to harbour European 
 vapours. 
 
 But these vagaries were restricted to a score of 
 wealthy houses, and even there the harim life went 
 on the same. There were the lattices, the veils, the 
 eunuchs, and some few slaves in spite of many edicts ; 
 the ladies still had their old interests and rules and 
 customs ; the same old women hawked the news and 
 bawdy tales from house to house; and superstition 
 flourished more than ever. Young wives who had 
 been bred up in the Frankish culture, and insisted 
 on the husband taking French in private, consulted 
 witches when the baby ailed, or sent a portion of his 
 clothing to be bloodstained at a zar. 
 
 Afifah married in due course a high official, and 
 Barakah spent half the year with her. The mother 
 had her little circle of old friends, and many pro- 
 teges in particular the house of Ghandur, whose 
 first-born, All, she regarded always as her son. Her 
 age seemed not unhappy. 
 
 On a summer evening, she was sitting on the roof 
 pf the old Pasha's palace, watching the sunset with
 
 VEILED WOMEN 309 
 
 Gulbeyzah, Na'imah, and two of Yusuf's sisters who 
 had come to visit her. Red light as of a conflagra- 
 tion shone around them. The shadow east towards 
 them by the parapet was vastly elongated and as 
 black as ink. A tray with fruit and sherbet rested 
 on the ground, and a slave-girl, squatting on her 
 heels before them, awaiting their good pleasure to 
 remove it, followed their conversation with an eager 
 smile. 
 
 The English had been five-and-twenty years in 
 Cairo, and mighty changes had distressed the world 
 of men, but the harim seemed changeless in its calm 
 seclusion. Beliefs as old as Egypt lingered there, 
 and new things introduced were made to serve old 
 customs. Yet the ladies had been sighing at the 
 growth of innovations. 
 
 " Dost thou remember, O my sweet one, the little 
 window in the servants' passage where I used to 
 sit and dream as a young maiden ? " sighed Gulbey- 
 zah. " Is it still there ? I must go down and see 
 it! And the little lover on the roof who waved his 
 arms so wildly? I wonder did he die of me, the poor 
 young man ! Thou didst blame me for that small 
 amusement; but, by Allah, girls in these days are 
 less innocent. My granddaughters read French 
 books till their brains are addled. They had bet- 
 ter sit alone and dream as I did." 
 
 " The best of life is thinking with hands idle," 
 answered Na'imah. " All women do it, and so form 
 their minds. But the girls to-day have no resources.
 
 310 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 They despise embroidery. They needs must be 
 amused by some strange sight, excited by unhealthy 
 reading, or they die of ennui." 
 
 " Look, look ! " exclaimed Gulbeyzah suddenly. 
 
 They all stared in the direction which her finger 
 pointed. 
 
 The slave, who had been waiting their good pleas- 
 ure to remove the tray, had started up and stood 
 against the parapet, looking out towards the sunset, 
 with her back towards them. Both her arms were 
 raised as for an incantation. The rosy light en- 
 veloped her as with a halo. Her shadow, grown 
 enormous, covered half the roof. 
 
 " I seek refuge in Allah. Is she worshipping the 
 sun ? " gasped Na'imah. " She should be punished 
 for such gross impiety." 
 
 " She is going to give that crow his salutation," 
 said Gulbeyzah. 
 
 The bird had wheeled away, but now drew near 
 again. 
 
 "If good the news, O bird, alight and welcome; 
 If bad, draw up thy claws and hie away! " 
 
 The slave-girl having chanted the time-honoured 
 formula, turned to resume her attitude of patient 
 waiting. She grinned to find herself the object of 
 all eyes. 
 
 " I shamed him," she remarked, with a wide flash 
 of teeth, as she sat down once more.
 
 VEILED WOMEN 311 
 
 " Thou knowest the history not so, O my 
 flower? " said Na'imah. 
 
 " Umm ed-Dahak has related it a thousand times 
 the Lord have mercy on her! " Barakah made an- 
 swer in a tone of fond remembrance. 
 
 " O light of my eyes, surely every woman here in 
 Egypt knows it ! " giggled Yusuf 's youngest sister. 
 " They say it has been handed down among us from 
 the days of our lord Noah, when we sent up the pe- 
 tition." 
 
 " That every girl might be allowed four hus- 
 bands ? " asked Gulbeyzah. 
 
 " More ! more ! or so old Umm ed-Dahak used 
 to tell me as many as she could endure, my 
 sweet ! " laughed Barakah. 
 
 " May Allah destroy the house of that most 
 wicked crow, who has kept us waiting all these thou- 
 sands of long years till now ! " groaned Na'imah. 
 
 " How long ! How long, O Lord ! " sighed out 
 Gulbeyzah in a comic ecstasy. 
 
 " Never in my time, that is certain, under Allah," 
 answered Barakah. " But perhaps you young 
 ones . . ." 
 
 " Young ones ! O Allah, listen to her ! Ah, alas 
 for us ! " cried Yusuf 's youngest sister, with a sob- 
 bing laugh. Whereat the ladies looked into each 
 other's faces, illumined by the greenish light which 
 follows sunset. A silence and a shudder fell upon 
 them.
 
 S12 VEILED WOMEN 
 
 " Allah have mercy on us ! " Gulbeyzah broke the 
 stillness with a shrug. " Behold us finished for the 
 joys of this low world." 
 
 " The praise to Allah ! " answered Na'imah de- 
 voutly. 
 
 They were all old withered bodies, for the grave. 
 
 THE END
 
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