LUXOR,
_January_ 26, 1867.

DEAREST MUTTER,

I must betray dear Sheykh Yussuf's confidence, and tell you his love
story.

A young fellow ran away with a girl he loved a short time ago, she having
told him that her parents wanted to marry her to another, and that she
would go to such a spot for water, and he must come on a horse, beat her
and carry her off (the beating saves the maiden's blushes). Well, the
lad did it, and carried her to Salamieh where they were married, and then
they went to Sheykh Yussuf to get him to conciliate the family, which he
did. He told me the affair, and I saw he sympathized much with the
runaways. 'Ah,' he said 'Lady, it is love, and that is terrible, I can
tell thee love is dreadful indeed to bear.' Then he hesitated and
blushed, and went on, 'I felt it once, Lady, it was the will of God that
I should love her who is now my wife. Thirteen years ago I loved her and
wished to marry her, but my father, and her grandfather my uncle the
Shereef, had quarrelled, and they took her and married her to another
man. I never told anyone of it, but my liver was burning and my heart
ready to burst for three years; but when I met her I fixed my eyes on the
ground for fear she should see my love, and I said to myself, Oh Yussuf,
God has afflicted thee, praise be unto Him, do thou remember thy blood
(Shereef) and let thy conduct be that of the Beni Azra who when they are
thus afflicted die rather than sin, for they have the strongest passion
of love and the greatest honour. And I did not die but went to Cairo to
the Gama el-Azhar and studied, and afterwards I married twice, as thou
knowest, but I never loved any but that one, and when my last wife died
the husband of this one had just divorced her to take a younger and
prettier one and my father desired me then to take her, but I was half
afraid not knowing whether she would love me; but, Praise be to God I
consented, and behold, poor thing, she also had loved me in like manner.'
I thought when I went to see her that she was unusually radiant with
new-married happiness, and she talked of 'el-Sheykh' with singular pride
and delight, and embraced me and called me 'mother' most affectionately.
Is it not a pretty piece of regular Arab romance like Ghamem?

My boat has gone up to-day with two very nice Englishmen in her. Their
young Mal