Yûsuf then walked apart with the two men, while Sawwâb, the eunuch, showed the lady her apartments. Sawwâb had come as escort to the carriage and returned with it as soon as he had seen her settled comfortably. A leering crone was left to guard propriety, a task which she performed extremely ill on that first evening; for instead of checking the high spirits of the slave-girls, who romped for joy at their release from stricter discipline, she smiled upon their antics, and herself performed a most improper dance before the bride.

For several days Yûsuf remained contented in the house and garden; while Barakah, half-dazed but happy too, beheld him as incarnate passion, not as man. She was the first to tire of loves and doves, and try to talk of something sensible. Yûsuf appeared to think the speech of every day a waste of time between them.

Then came the period of tiffs, the fretful wakening. Yûsuf began to deal in sentiment about his mother, proclaiming it a hardship that his wife should still distrust her.