“The lady is distraught with grief. I reverence her like a parent. She is absent from the world; she does not hear us. I think that she is going to the tombs to pray. It were a good deed to conduct her thither.”

“True, wallahi! May Allah heal her soul, the poor one! These be dreadful times!”

A woman came out to the doorway, holding up an earthen lamp.

“Deign to enter, O my sweet,” she called seductively.

Selîm assisted his employer to dismount.

“Go in and rest,” he whispered. “My mother and my sister are alone in there. Thou canst unveil. The dwellings of the poor are all haremlik. In a little while I shall return and call thee from without. I go but to make sure the ways are safe.”