lt waters to bathe.
Naked were they save for a covering which clung as closely as the skin
to a peach, so that if I had had a mind I could have discoursed upon
the comeliness of the wife of el Jones, or the poor land belonging to
el Smith. Allah! I remember well a bride-to-be of seventeen summers,
comely in her outer raiment, displaying to her future husband, without
hesitation, the poor harvest of which he would shortly be the reaper,
for I think that the majority of the women of the West strive not to
render themselves beautiful, develop not the portion of the body which
maybe lacks contour from birth, bathes not her body in perfumed waters,
feeds not her skin with delicious unguents, cares not if her hair
reaches in wisps to her shoulders, or falls below her waist as a
natural covering under which she may hide at the approach of her
master, neither does she daily perfume it, nor her hands, nor her feet,
nor any part of her."

Once again Jill snapped the story thread, but this time with laughter,
for her mind's eye, aided by her companion's scathing comments, had
called up picture after picture of friends and acquaintances who, at
balls, theatres, or by the sea, had draped themselves or not according
to what they imagined to be their menfolk's outlook upon life.

"How funny!" she laughed, "how too funny!" And added: "And then?" as
she lit another cigarette which she did not smoke.

"For many years," continued Hahmed, "I wandered, even unto Asia and to
America. In truth whilst there the desert suddenly called me. My body
craved for the sun, my eyes for the great distances of the sand, my
ears for the familiar sounds of the East.

"But I could not return to the place of my shame, likewise were my
parents dead, leaving me an equal part of their great wealth.

"So I went to other parts and bought 'the flat oasis' as it is called,
on account of the many miles of perfectly flat sand surrounding it,
absolutely unbroken by rock or bush or sand-dune. And perforce because
I needed it not I acquired wealth, and yet more wealth, buying villages
and great tracts of ground, breeding and selling camels and horses,
diverting myself with my hawks, hunting with my cheetahs, or
greyhounds, to occupy my time, heaping up the jewels in my bank at
Cairo, keeping the best of everything for my wife, the woman predicted
in my horoscope, for there can be no real happiness without a perfect
helpmate, and real happiness has been promis