uths.

This storm, which I permitted to rage without opening my lips, gave me
time for reflection, and I determined to try what a little resistance
would do.

'And who are you,' said I to the stern man, 'who dares come into my
house, and treat me as your dog? As for these,' pointing to my wife's
relations, 'the house is theirs, and they are welcome; but you, who
are neither her father, her brother, nor her uncle, what have you to do
here? I neither married your daughter, nor your sister, and therefore
what can it be to you who I am?'

All this while he seemed swelling with rage. He and his ruffians were
curling up their mustachios to the corners of their eyes, and eyeing me,
as the lion does the hind, before he pounces upon it.

'Who am I?' said he with a voice of anger. 'If you want to know, ask
those who brought me here. I and my men act from authority, which if you
dispute, it will be the worse for you.'

'But,' said I, softening my tone, for I now found that they were
officers of the police, 'but if you insist upon separating me from my
wife, to whom I have been lawfully married, give me time to consult the
men of the law. Every son of Islam has the blessed Koran as his refuge,
and ye would not be such infidels as to deprive me of that? Besides, I
have not been told yet that she agrees to what you propose. She first
sought me out; I did not seek her. She wooed me for my own sake, not for
any worldly interest; and when I accepted her I knew her not, neither
had I any tidings of either her wealth or her family. The whole has been
the business of predestination, and if ye are Mussulmans, will ye dare
to oppose that?'

'As to the wishes of Shekerleb upon the subject,' said the eldest
brother, 'make your mind easy. She desires a separation more even than
we do.'

'Yes, yes, in the name of the Prophet, yes, let him go in peace. For the
sake of Allah, let us be free,' and fifty other such exclamations, all
at once struck my ear; and on looking to the door which led into the
women's apartments, from whence the sound came, I beheld my women
veiled, headed by my wife, who had been conducted there on purpose to
give evidence against me, and who all seemed possessed by so many evil
spirits, shouting and wailing out their lamentations and entreaties for
my dismissal, as if I were the wicked one in person to be exorcised from
the house.

Finding that all was over with me, that it was in vain to contend
against a power