ite of the latter being condemned by
religion; also did he learn to converse in foreign tongues. Do not
think that these qualifications were enumerated with the zest and
glorification which usually precede the distribution of dull books at a
prize-giving, for the man might have been talking of the sunshine or
the sand or the flies or any other part of that which goes to the
making up of Egypt, rather than that which had helped to make him the
finest man in the country.

And yet another trait which he touched upon lightly, and which had
served to make him the subject of comment in the bazaars, and of gossip
in the harems.

In regard to his womenfolk there is no man sterner the world over than
the Mohammedan, shielding them from harm, and insisting on the absolute
privacy of their lives and their bodies. Upon just this subject, from
the first day of his understanding, Hahmed the Arab was stern to
fanaticism, intolerant even to injustice. He disapproved of licence in
all things, but especially in speech, food, and religion. When forced
by circumstances, he went to the feasts to which he was invited, eating
sparingly as was his wont, taking no more interest in the more or less
clothed dancing women than in a set of performing dogs, departing
thankfully when the hour came.

Let me recount, in his own words, the happenings of his youth, which
served to change the whole tenor of his life, and was to culminate in
the high adventure of an English girl.

"At the age of fourteen I was to marry and was content, for the desires
of my own woman had come upon me, and I longed to possess the beauty of
which my mother told me, and which, save for her father, had been seen
by no man.

"My own woman I desired, I say, for bought women were not for me, and I
had refrained therefrom, therefore was I unsoiled at the time of my
wedding.

"True my marriage had naught to do with my horoscope cast at birth, for
it had been read that water would bring me joy, and water would bring
me grief, and that water again would bring me everlasting happiness, so
I thought with others that it had lied, and was amazed.

"But behold, when after great festival and feasting my bride was in the
care of her handmaidens who prepared her for my coming, one came, and
casting herself at my feet, covered her head in dust, begging a word
with me.

"It seemed she was a master in the art of tinting the fingers the pink
which we Arabs love.

"I thought she