up with rage and exhaustion. Our violence has much
abated since this conflict; but her enmity is undiminished, for she
continues to show her spite against me in every manner she can devise.'

Zeenab continued to entertain me in this manner until the first dawn
of the morning, and when we heard the _muezzin_[43] call the morning
prayers from the mosque, we thought it prudent to retire; but not until
we had made mutual promises of seeing each other as often as prudence
would allow. We agreed, that whenever she had by her stratagems secured
an opportunity for meeting, she should hang her veil upon the bough of
a tree in the court, which could be seen from my terrace; and that if it
were not there, I was to conclude that our interview on that night was
impossible.

[Illustration: Hajji sings to Zeenab. 15.jpg]

CHAPTER XXV

The lovers meet again, and are very happy--Hajji Baba sings.

On the following evening, I ascended the terrace in the hope of seeing
the signal of meeting; but in vain; no veil was visible; and I sat
myself down in despair. The tobacco, and all the apparatus for cleaning
it, had disappeared, and all was hushed below. Even the unceasing
voice of the doctor's wife, which I now began to look upon as the most
agreeable sound in nature, was wanting; and the occasional drag of a
slipper, which I guessed might proceed from the crawl of old Leilah, was
the only sign of an inhabitant. I had in succession watched the distant
din of the king's band, the crash of the drums, and the swell of the
trumpets, announcing sunset. I had listened to the various tones of the
muezzins, announcing the evening prayer; as well as to the small drum of
the police, ordering the people to shut their shops, and retire to their
homes. The cry of the sentinels on the watch-towers of the king's palace
was heard at distant intervals; night had completely closed in upon me,
and still the same silence prevailed in the doctor's harem.

'What can be the reason of this?' said I to myself. 'If they have been
to the bath, they cannot have remained thus late: besides, the baths are
open for the women in the mornings only. Some one must be sick, or there
is a marriage, or a birth, or perhaps a burial; or the doctor may have
received the bastinado'; in short, I was killing myself with conjecture,
when of a sudden a great beating at the door took place, and, as it
opened, the clatter of slippers was heard, attended by the mingled
sound