"'Well, then, as it is quite dark now, you ought not to be more strict
about the rest than you are about your mouth.'

"She seemed irritated, wounded, and offended, and replied with an amount
of pride that I had never noticed in her before:--

"'If an Arab girl were to allow herself to be touched by a Roumi during
the Ramadan, she would be cursed for ever.'

"'And that is to continue for a whole month?'

"'Yes, for the whole of the month of Ramadan,' she replied, with great
determination.

"I assumed an irritated manner and said:--'Very well, then, you can go
and spend the Ramadan with your family.'

"She seized my hands, and, laying them on my heart, she said:--

"'Oh! Please do not be unkind, and you shall see how nice I will be. We
will keep Ramadan together, if you like. I will look after you, and spoil
you, but don't be unkind.'

"I could not help smiling at her funny manner and her unhappiness, and
I sent her to go to sleep at home, but, an hour later, just as I was
thinking about going to bed, there came two little taps at my door,
which were so slight, however, that I scarcely heard them; but when I
said:--'Come in,' Allouma appeared carrying a large tray covered with
Arab dainties; fried balls of rice, covered with sugar, and a variety of
other strange, Nomad pastry.

"She laughed, showing her white teeth, and repeated:--'Come, we will keep
Ramadan together.'

"You know that the fast, which begins at dawn and ends at twilight, at
the moment when the eye can no longer distinguish a black from a white
thread, is followed every evening by small, friendly entertainments, at
which eating is kept up until the morning, and the result is that for
such of the natives as are not very scrupulous, Ramadan consists of
turning day into night, and night into day. But Allouma carried her
delicacy of conscience further than this. She placed her tray between us
on the divan, and taking a small, sugared ball between her long, slender
fingers, she put it into my mouth, and whispered:--'Eat it, it is very
good.'

"I munched the light cake, which was really excellent, and asked
her:--'Did you make that?'

"'Yes.'

"'For me?'

"'Yes, for you.'

"'To enable me to support Ramadan?'

"'Oh! Don't be so unkind! I will bring you some every day.'

"Oh! the terrible month that I spent! A sugared, insipidly sweet month; a
month that nearly drove me mad; a month of spoiling and of temptation, of
anger and of vain efforts