"Long is the
hair of woman, and long also is her understanding,"' she said, almost
fiercely.

"'But I shall have the whole bazaar laughing at me,' I cried, aghast at
this proposal. 'I will take it away and restore my father's proverb if
you will help me, and will give you as much jewellery as you shall ask,
but I cannot change the motto to what you say.'

"'Jewellery is nothing to me,' she said, scornfully. 'Change the motto
to what I have said, or keep your wife, I care not which.' Upon this she
veiled herself and was going away, but I detained her and said, 'O
maiden, you have asked me a very hard thing; but I will do even this if
you will rid me of this woman, and tell me in truth who you are, so that
I may have you for myself.'

"She promised she would, and made me swear by the sacred window of the
Prophet that I would change the motto to her liking the day after I
should be married to her. She then went away, saying she had stayed too
long already, but that she would send her servant the next day, who
would tell me her plan.

"On my return home that evening my mother met me with many complaints of
the behaviour of my wife, who had abused her during my absence, and she
ended by bewailing that I had not let her choose a wife for me.

"The next day the servant appeared, and after telling me who her
mistress really was, thus unfolded her plan:--

"'To-morrow evening you must meet your father-in-law at the coffee-house
he frequents, and in the meantime collect some of the poorest and lowest
men you can find, and promise them a good backsheesh if they will obey
the orders you will give them, which are these: While you are at the
coffee-house the oldest man of them must come in and sit by your side,
and call you his dear nephew, and say he hears that you have made a rich
marriage, and that he hopes you are not going to slight your own
relations in consequence. The other men must follow his example, and say
much the same thing, but call you cousin, brother-in-law, or friend.

"'The old Sheikh, who is very proud of his family, will want you to
divorce his daughter at once, but you must pretend you are too satisfied
with her to do that, and from threats he will come to entreaties, and
will at last want to bribe you. Not till then must you yield, and when
you do, it must be with apparent reluctance.'

[Illustration: "I SAW DISGUST AND DISMAY RISE IN ABDU HASSAN'S FACE."]

"I was overjoyed at this plan, and bestowed