d me so long in suspense? Perhaps she thinks me unworthy of
contemplating her charms; and she thinks right, for I am only a poor
mollah, whilst doubtless even the sun, in all its majesty, is not
entitled to such privilege.'

'Why do you make this _naz_ (coyness ),' said her companions to her;
'you now he must be able to give an account of us, or else the curse of
single life will be our fate, and we shall remain the scorn and reproach
of womankind.'

'Be it so,' said the third woman; 'the cat must come from under the
blanket'; and, in a sort of pet, she drew off her veil, and, to my great
astonishment, exhibited to my view the well-known features of the wife
of the Shah's physician, my former master.

'By all that is most sacred! by the beard of the blessed Prophet!' said
I, 'how is this? Are the Gins at work, that they should have brought
this about?'

'Yes, Hajji,' said she, very composedly, 'fate is a wonderful thing. But
you, you who killed my husband, how came you to be a mollah?'

'Is your husband dead, then,' said I, 'that you talk to me thus? Why do
you throw words away in this unguarded manner? What have I to do with
your husband's death? He was once my master, and I grieve for his loss.
But you might as well say that I killed the martyr Hossein (blessings on
his memory!) as that I killed the hakim. Tell me what has happened; for
I am walking round and round in the labyrinth of ignorance.'

'Why do you pretend ignorance,' said she with her usual scream, when you
must know that it was on your account that the Shah sent Zeenab out of
this world--that her death led to the doctor having his beard plucked
--that having his beard plucked brought on his disgrace--and his
disgrace death? Therefore you are the cause of all the mischief.'

'What ashes are you heaping upon my head, O khanum?' said I with great
vehemence; 'why am I to be told that I am the death of a man, when I
was a hundred parasangs off at the time? You might as well say, if your
husband had died of a surfeit, that the labourer who had planted the
rice was the cause of his death.'

We continued to argue for some time, when the other women, fearing that
their interests would be neglected, interposed, and put me in mind that
we had business to transact; for they were anxious that their charms
should no longer lie barren and neglected. The khanum, too, who only
talked for talking's sake, and who, to my knowledge, had cherished a
more than common h