lil,
breathless and bleeding, ran up and took refuge beneath the skirts of his
mantle from a crowd of savage urchins. Fadlallah was amazed, and said, "O,
my son--for I think thou art my son--what evil hath befallen thee, and
wherefore do I see thee in this state?" The boy, whose voice was choked by
sobs, looked up into his face, and said, "Father, I am the son of the
richest merchant of Beyrout, and behold, there is no one so little cared
for as I."

Fadlallah's conscience smote him, and he wiped the boy's bleeding face
with the corner of his silk caftan, and blessed him; and, taking him by
the hand, led him away. The merchants smiled benignly one to the other,
and, pointing with their thumbs, said, "We have seen the model youth!"

Whilst they laughed and sneered, Fadlallah, humbled yet resolved, returned
to his house, leading the ragged Halil, and entered his wife's chamber.
Selima was playing with her seventh child, and teaching it to lisp the
word "Baba"--about the amount of education which she had found time to
bestow on each of her offspring. When she saw the plight of her eldest son
she frowned, and was about to scold him; but Fadlallah interposed, and
said, "Wife, speak no harsh words. We have not done our duty by this boy.
May God forgive us; but we have looked on these children that have bloomed
from thee, more as playthings than as deposits for which we are
responsible. Halil has become a wild out-of-doors lad, doubting with some
reason of our love. It is too late to bring him back to the destiny we had
dreamt of; but he must not be left to grow up thus uncared for. I have a
brother established in Bassora; to him will I send the lad to learn the
arts of commerce, and to exercise himself in adventure, as his father did
before him. Bestow thy blessing upon him, Selima (here the good old man's
voice trembled), and may God in his mercy forgive both thee and me for the
neglect which has made this parting necessary. I shall know that I am
forgiven, if, before I go down into the tomb, my son return a wise and
sober man; not unmindful that we gave him life, and forgetting that, until
now, we have given him little else."

Selima laid her seventh child in its cradle of carved wood, and drew Halil
to her bosom; and Fadlallah knew that she loved him still, because she
kissed his face, regardless of the blood and dirt that stained it. She
then washed him and dressed him, and gave him a purse of gold, and handed
him over