e
brave.

Suddenly an idea came to me. There was a little closet leading out of my
room, in which we kept extra covers and mattresses for the beds. There
was a small window in this closet looking on to the roof of the stables.
This was my only hope or chance. I fastened my child firmly to me with a
wide silk scarf, and then I got out of the window and dropped on to the
roof of the stable, which was about two yards below. Everything around
me was covered with smoke, but fortunately there were gusts of wind,
which drove it away, enabling me to see what I was doing. From the roof
to the ground I had to let myself down, and then jump. I sprained my
wrist and hurt my head terribly in falling, but my child was safe. I
rushed across the court-yard and out to the opposite side of the road,
and had only just time to sit down behind a low wall away from the
crowd, when I fainted away.

[Illustration: "I GOT OUT OF THE WINDOW."]

V.

When I came to myself again, nothing remained of our home but a smoking
ruin, upon which the _touloumbad jis_ were still throwing water. The
neighbours and a crowd of other people were watching the fire finish its
work. Not very far away from me, among the spectators, I recognised
Mourad-bey, standing in the midst of a little group of friends.

His face was perfectly livid, and his eyes were wild with grief. I saw
him pick up a burning splinter from the wreck of his home, where he
believed all that he loved had perished. He offered it to his friend,
who was lighting his cigarette, and said, bitterly, "This is the only
hospitality I have now to offer!"

The tone of his voice startled me--it was full of utter despair, and I
saw that his lips quivered as he spoke.

I could not bear to see him suffer like that another second.

"Bey Effendi!" I cried, "your son is saved!"

He turned round, but I was covered with my torn _simare_, which was all
stained with mud; the light did not fall on me, and he did not recognise
me at all. My voice, too, must have sounded strange, for after all the
emotion and torture I had gone through, and then my long fainting-fit, I
could scarcely articulate a sound. He saw the baby which I was holding
up, and stepped forward.

[Illustration: "HE SAW THE BABY."]

"What is he to me," he said, "without my Feliknaz?"

"Mourad!" I exclaimed, "I am here, too! He darted to me, and took me in
his arms; then, with his eyes full of tears, he looked at tenderly and
kissed me