ld buttons. About her slim waist was a _fouta_, or scarf of
striped silk. Below came the _serroual_, wide trousers of white silk
that ended mid-leg. Upon her feet were blue velvet slippers, pointed,
turned up at the toes and embroidered with gold. About her ankles were
_redeefs_, or bangles of emeralds, pierced, and strung on common
string. At her wrists hung a multitude of bangles, and on her bare left
arm, near the shoulder, was a gold wire that pinched the flesh, and
from it hung a filigree medallion that covered her crest, tattooed
beneath the skin. It is always so with the tribe of Ouled Nail.

This was the costume of the woman, but the woman herself, as she stood
in the doorway, the taper in her hand, who may describe her? Tall,
lithe, laughing--her black hair, braided, tied behind her neck, and
still reaching the ground; her eyebrows straight as though pencilled;
her ears small and closely set; her nose straight and thin, with
fluttering nostrils; her shoulders sloping; her bust firm and pulsating
beneath her linen vest; her slender waist; her little feet, in the blue
velvet slippers; the charm of breeding and of youth; the added charm of
jewels and of soft textures; what wonder that the two men sat silent
and gazing?

Abdullah spoke first. "Beloved," he said, "I have broken your night's
rest that you may have eternal rest."

The girl laughed. "That is a long way off," she said. "The cemetery,
with the cypress-trees, is beautiful, but this hut, with thee, is
better. Why did you wake me?"

"Because, since you slept," said Abdullah, "I have changed my
religion."

"Good," exclaimed the girl; "then I change mine. I am tired of a
religion that makes me plait my hair for eight hours of the day and
sends no man to see it."

"What religion do you choose?" asked Abdullah.

"Yours," said the girl, seating herself and dropping her hands,
interlaced, and covered with turquoise rings, about her knees; "why
should a woman question anything when her husband has passed upon it?"

"Did I not tell thee?" said Abdullah.

"Yes," said the priest, "but I waited for her own words."

"You have them now," said Abdullah, and they went out to the spring.

"I name thee Marie," said the priest, "since it is the name borne by
the Mother of our Lord."

"Ah," said the girl, "I was baptized Fathma, after the Mother of the
Prophet. There seems to be not so much difference thus far."

When the sacrament had been administered and th