repaired. He was patching my own work! I swallowed my ire and went
back to my shop. A week later, to be brief, I went there again, and
what I beheld made my body shiver. She, the wench. Forgive me, Allah!
had her hands around his neck and her lips--yes, her lying lips, on
his cheek! No, no; even then I did not utter a word. I could but cry
in the depth of my heart. How can woman be so faithless, so
treacherous--in my heart I cried.

"'It was a terrible shock; and from it I lay in bed for days with
chills and fever. Now, when I recovered, I was determined on pursuing
a new course of life. No longer would I measure women's feet. I sold
my stock, closed my shop, and entered the monastery. I heard
afterwards that she married that young cobbler; emigrated with him to
America; deserted him there; returned to her native village; married
again, and fled with her second husband to South Africa. Allah be
praised! even He appreciates the difference between a shoemaker and a
cobbler; and the bad woman He gives to the bad craftsman. That is why
I say, Never be a cobbler, whatever you do.

"'But in the monastery--draw near, I will speak freely--in the
monastery, too, there are cobblers and shoemakers. There, too, is much
ungodliness, much treachery, much cobbling. Ah me, I must not speak
thus. Forgive me, Allah! But I promised to tell you the whole story.
Therefore, I will speak freely. After passing some years in the
monastery, years of probation and grief they were, I fell sick with a
virulent fever. The abbot, seeing that there was little chance of my
recovery, would not send for the physician. And so, I languished for
weeks, suffering from thirst and burning pains and hunger. I raved and
chattered in my delirium. I betrayed myself, too, they told me. The
monks my brothers, even during my suffering, made a scandal of the
love affair I related. They said that I exposed my wounds and my
broken heart before the Virgin, that I sinned in thought and word on
my death-bed. Allah forgive them. It may be, however; for I know not
what I said and what I did. But when I recovered, I was determined not
to remain in the monastery, and not to return to the world. The wicked
world, I disentangled myself absolutely from its poisoned meshes. I
came to the Hermitage, to this place. And never, since I made my
second remove until now, have I known disease, or sorrow, nor
treachery, which is worse than both. Allah be praised! One's people,
one's brot