in bethink thee, thou who hast the gift of making likenesses and
colouring them so that they resemble living things, what fame awaits
thee as a maker of sacred pictures for our churches and our dwellings!"

"True, I must think of that," replied Iskender. He meant, in case he
failed by any chance to find the valley full of gold, whose wealth
would raise him to the social rank of his Emir.

"Well, go in peace, my son; may Allah guide thee!"

With the blessing Mitti [Transcriber's note: Mitri?] kissed Iskender on
the brow, and pressed his hand. They were then quite near the little
house upon the sandhill; could see light streaming from its open door
and, silhouetted on the light, Iskender's mother looking out for him.

"Mercy on us!" she exclaimed, when her son came bounding through a gap
of the cactus hedge. "Praise be to Allah thou art still alive and
well! I have kept a bowl of lentils hot for thee, which is more than
thy deserts, O shameless one! O my despair, ever to have borne such a
son! When--when wilt thou learn discretion? Why didst thou express a
hope that thy Emir would foul the beard of the Father of Ice, and that
in the hearing of the son of Costantin? Here have the ladies been
again to-day, railing against thee as the worst of malefactors. By
Allah, I can keep thee here no longer. Yet whither canst thou go,
unhappy boy, for now I learn that thou hast angered thy Emir? Thy
uncle, the respectable Abdullah, has been here in great trouble for
thee. He has this day returned from Beyrut, that great, splendid city,
and I thought that he had come to tell me of its progress and high
fashion. But no, it was for thee he came. In the town, on landing he
had heard the tidings of thy downfall. Why hast thou hid the truth
from me these many days? I could have fallen lifeless when I heard him
say that thou art nothing, that Elias is the friend of thy Emir.
Whence came that money thou didst show me? Was it stolen? Tell me, O
unfortunate! I am thy loving mother, and shall not condemn thee."

Iskender laughed at her concern.

"It is true," he said, "that my Emir did for a time prefer Elias. But
now, praise to Allah, all is well again!" And he proceeded to relate
what had happened that morning in the orange-garden.

"May Allah reward our father Mitri!" his mother exclaimed. "But I
would not have thee go too far in friendship with him, on account of
the missionaries, who may yet forgive thee. To-day