ed me.

"And all these things I have done for her, yet am I looked upon as mad
by many in that at twenty-eight years I have not begotten me a son, for
they could not understand the disgust which had taken root in my whole
being, so that in love or passion or desire I laid not hands upon women.

"You cannot understand, woman of the West, what it means when I say
this to you, for in the East a man's greatest desire is to propagate
his race, to have sons, many sons, with a daughter or two, or more as
Allah wills, and to satisfy this longing in the shadow of the law,
Allah, who is God, in His all-powerful goodness and bounty has allowed
us as many as four wives, and as many women slaves or concubines as a
man can properly and with decency provide for, the children of the
latter, if recognised by the father, sharing equally with the offspring
of the former. Though why a man who has found his love should wish to
cumber his house with other women, seething with jealousy and peevish
from want of occupation, is beyond my power of comprehension.

"So I have none, because it is within me to love one woman only, and to
find the light of my life in her and the children of her loins, and if
Allah in his wisdom sees not good to grant me this woman, who must come
to me of her own free-will and love, then will I go to my grave in
Allah's time without wife, without child, although the Koran sayeth
that he who fails in his duty towards his race is accursed among men."

And behold, a great trembling fell upon the English girl, as rising to
her feet she stood to look out upon the desert, and drawing the glory
of her hair about her so that she was covered from the gaze of the man
who stood apart, passed into her tent.

And the hour of prayer being at hand the man purified himself, and
turning towards Mecca praised his God, and divesting himself of his
outer raiment laid himself across the entrance of the woman's tent so
as to guard her through her sleep, until such time that Allah, who is
God, should open the entrance of her chamber unto him, and place the
delights thereof into his hands for ever.

CHAPTER XXI

And the first day was like unto the second and the third, for these two
desert farers went but slowly.

Each dawn, if they had travelled in the night, they found their tents
pitched; each night they moved on, or not, as pleased the girl's mood,
each hour of the day strengthening the love in the man's soul, each
minute