eing the only son, I became proprietor of
this shop and the head of our household.

"I was not married, and had no wish to be, as I looked upon women with
aversion and contempt, and was angry with my mother when she wished to
get me a wife. I was encouraged in these ideas by an old man named
Mahran Effendi, who had been a great friend of my father, and who still
came in the evening to my house to smoke a nargileh with me. He had two
wives, who gave him much trouble with their quarrels, and he used to say
that women were created as a punishment for the sins of men, and to
prevent them from being so much attached to this world as to be
unwilling to leave it even for the joys of paradise, which, he said,
would certainly be the case if there were no women. He repeated to me a
sentence which he said was out of the Koran, though I have not seen it
there myself. It was, 'Long is the hair of woman, but short is her
understanding.'

"I was much struck with this, and repeated it to my mother with great
pleasure, who was not so much pleased with it as I was. Indeed, she was
quite angry, and said that Mahran was an old donkey, and the son of a
donkey. I, however, had a higher opinion of the wisdom of my old friend,
and, acting upon his advice, I determined to adopt this as my motto, and
to paint it over my shop instead of the proverb which had been put there
by my father. My motto made quite a stir in the bazaar for the first few
days, and caused a good deal of amusement amongst the other shopkeepers
and the passers-by. I have no doubt it was repeated in many of the
harems also, for some of the women, who may have been teased about it by
their husbands, reviled me as they passed.

[Illustration: "SHE GAVE ME A GLANCE OUT OF HER DARK EYES."]

"One day, not long after this, two women entered my shop and asked to be
shown some of my finest silks; so I took them into the inner part, where
I keep the most costly of my goods. While they were examining them I
noticed that one of them had eyes that shone like stars, and which she
kept fixed on me even while she laughed and chatted with her companion.
Then, in stooping to pick up one of the shawls, her veil by some means
became detached and fell to the ground, and I saw the face of what I
thought to be surely the loveliest houri ever seen by mortal man. She
gave a little scream and called to her companion, who seemed to be her
servant, to assist her to refasten it, but at the same time g