AND AFTER!

On the day following this remarkable scene--a scene calculated to make
a deep impression upon anybody who beheld it, more because of what it
suggested and seemed to foreshadow than of what it revealed--it was
announced to us that a feast would be held that evening in our honour.
I did my best to get out of it, saying that we were modest people, and
cared little for feasts, but my remarks being received with the silence
of displeasure, I thought it wisest to hold my tongue.

Accordingly, just before sundown, I was informed that everything was
ready, and, accompanied by Job, went into the cave, where I met Leo,
who was, as usual, followed by Ustane. These two had been out walking
somewhere, and knew nothing of the projected festivity till that moment.
When Ustane heard of it I saw an expression of horror spring up upon her
handsome features. Turning she caught a man who was passing up the cave
by the arm, and asked him something in an imperious tone. His answer
seemed to reassure her a little, for she looked relieved, though far
from satisfied. Next she appeared to attempt some remonstrance with the
man, who was a person in authority, but he spoke angrily to her, and
shook her off, and then, changing his mind, led her by the arm, and sat
her down between himself and another man in the circle round the fire,
and I perceived that for some reason of her own she thought it best to
submit.

The fire in the cave was an unusually big one that night, and in a
large circle round it were gathered about thirty-five men and two women,
Ustane and the woman to avoid whom Job had played the _role_ of another
Scriptural character. The men were sitting in perfect silence, as was
their custom, each with his great spear stuck upright behind him, in
a socket cut in the rock for that purpose. Only one or two wore the
yellowish linen garment of which I have spoken, the rest had nothing on
except the leopard's skin about the middle.

"What's up now, sir," said Job, doubtfully. "Bless us and save us,
there's that woman again. Now, surely, she can't be after me, seeing
that I have given her no encouragement. They give me the creeps, the
whole lot of them, and that's a fact. Why look, they have asked Mahomed
to dine, too. There, that lady of mine is talking to him in as nice and
civil a way as possible. Well, I'm glad it isn't me, that's all."

We looked up, and sure enough the woman in question had risen, and was
escorting the w