embling toward the door.

Urad ran forward and opened it, when the son of Houadir entered, and
asked Urad the reason of her cries.

"O thou blessed angel!" said Urad; "this wicked wretch is disguised in
his sister's clothes."

But Darandu was fled, as guilt is ever fearful, mean, and base.

"Now, Urad," said the son of Houadir, "before you close your doors
upon another man, let me resume my former features."

Upon which Urad looked, and beheld her old friend Houadir. At the
sight of Houadir, Urad was equally astonished and abashed.

"Why blushes, Urad?" said Houadir.

"How, O genius," said Urad, "for such I perceive thou art--how is Urad
guilty? I invited not Darandu hither: I wished not for him."

"Take care," answered Houadir, "what you say. If you wished not for
him, you hardly wished him away, and, but for your imprudence, he had
not entered your home. Consider how have your days been employed since
I left you? Have you continued to watch the labours of the silk-worm?
Have you repeated the lessons I gave you? or has the time of Urad been
consumed in idleness and disobedience? Has she shaken off her
dependence on Mahomet, and indulged the unavailing sorrows of her
heart?"

"Alas!" answered the fair Urad, "repeat no more, my ever-honoured
Houadir: I have indeed been guilty, under the mask of love and
affection; and I now plainly see the force of your first rule, that
idleness is the beginning of all evil and vice. Yes, my dearest
Houadir, had I attended to your instructions I had given no handle to
Darandu's insolence; but yet methinks some sorrows were allowable for
the loss of such a mother and such a friend."

"Sorrows," answered Houadir, "proceed from the heart, and, totally
indulged, soon require a change and vicissitude in our minds;
wherefore, in the midst of your griefs, your feet involuntarily
wandered after Darandu, and your soul, softened by idle sighs, was the
more easily impressed by the deceits of his tongue.

"But this remember, O Urad--for I must, I find, repeat an old
instruction to you--that of all things in the world, nothing should so
much engage a woman's attention as the avenues which lead to her
heart. Such are the wiles and deceits of men, that they are rarely to
be trusted with the most advanced post; give them but footing, though
that footing be innocent, and they will work night and day till their
wishes are accomplished. Trust not, therefore, to yourself alone, nor
suffer your