“Her need is real, for she is poor,” said Fitnah Khânum, when Barakah remarked on the old woman’s foibles. “But she loves subtlety far more than comfort, and would refuse high monthly wages, to obtain a lesser sum by stealth and coaxing, as occasion offered. She has had much money given to her, to my knowledge; but it is as dust to her. She is like the clever fellow in the story, who, having earned much money by his ingenuity, scrambled it among the crowd; and in the end, when it was finished, sighed, ‘O Allah, would that I had all the gold on earth to go on flinging it and see men fight like dogs for its possession!’ ”

Fitnah, though she scolded the old woman, had a liking for her company and waggish talk. And Umm ed-Dahak, being very diplomatic, paid her court. Indeed, she flattered all the ladies of the house with the assurance that she wished to be the spokesman of their will with Barakah, and went to them for orders every day.