straight. At present she is
very young; and thou hast yet no trade by which to gain a livelihood.
Now I have been thinking; Allah has bestowed on thee a rare and
wondrous gift, which is, to make flat likenesses of all things that
thine eyes behold. There lives in El Cuds a sheykh of my
acquaintance--a righteous man, and steadfast in the faith--who earns
his living, and a fat one, by no other means. He makes the icons and
religious pictures for many of our monasteries and great churches.
Often, in old days, when I was at the seminary, have I watched him
shape the blue and crimson robes and spread the gold like butter. I
will write a word to him and, maybe, pay a trifle, that he may receive
thee as his disciple. Devote thyself to his instruction and soon, with
the grace of Allah, thou wilt far surpass him in accomplishment. Then,
after a year or two, return and speak to us of marriage. We shall hear
thee favourably. Have I said well, O my daughter?"

The child was silent. The weight of her father's words had stilled and
solemnised her, removing every trace of coquetry. Her head was bowed
as at the benediction; she was sobbing. Mitri patted her head and bade
her run indoors.

"There is yet another reason," he told Iskender privately, "why I would
defer the nuptials for a year or two. Did thy wedding with my daughter
follow close on thy conversion, scoffers would see in it a clear
inducement, would say that I bribed thee with my flesh and blood; and
that would grieve me. Go away, therefore, for a reasonable time; let
the noise of thy conversion die away; and all is said."

So it was arranged.

CHAPTER XXX

On the day when the Emir set sail for England in the custody of his
forbidding uncle, Iskender, with the sum of two mejidis in his pouch,
set out on foot for the Holy City. On his way to join a horde of
Russian pilgrims with whom, by Mitri's advice, he was to walk for
safety, he saw the carriage belonging to the Hotel Barudi, conveying
the two Englishmen to the gate of the town. The carriage passed him
from behind; its inmates must have had him long in view, the road being
empty; yet the Emir deigned never a glance at him, but laughed and
talked, as if enchanted, with the horrible old ghoul who sat beside
him. Iskender called down curses on their race, and hastened on to
find his Russian pilgrims.

These were peasants, men and women, for the most part old, with faces
gnarled and knotted like