While we were passing one of the evenings of Ramadan in talk of the bygone days, when the veil was widespread among the various classes and communities, and of the change that has come over our life — we Easterners — my dear grandmother smiled and began to nod her head, her eyes lowered to the floor, as though she had remembered one of those charming anecdotes of hers with which she was accustomed to regale us from time to time. We asked her the reason for her smile and the source of her musing; she lit a cigarette and said:

— "I have remembered a strange incident that took place in the city of Hama in the days of Ottoman rule over the country, when Ismail Effendi was mutasarrif of that city. The events of the incident occurred while I too was living in Hama, for your grandfather, God rest his soul, held a post there. The story has just now passed through my memory because it bears directly on the veil; and you know that man is ever eager to know the unknown among matters and things. A man will exert his utmost effort, and sometimes expose himself to many dangers and troubles, for that end — espe-cially if 'woman' is the pivot of that unknown!.. And I believe that men's longing to know women, their preoccupation with them, and their tracking of their foot-steps were great, and wrapped in a halo of forbidden magic, in the days when women went veiled — unlike our condition today, when women have become exposed to

the eyes of every beholder! The common proverb spoke truly: 'Everything forbidden is desired.'

As for Ismail Effendi the mutasar-rif, he was known at the time for his intense passion for beauty, for music, and for everything delightful in life, along with his great activity and his leaping vitality. Those who kept his company in Turkey shortly before his marriage say he was one of the dissolute young men; yet he was blessed with a partner for his life of great beauty and delicacy. When he came to occupy the post of the mutasarrifate in Hama he brought her with him, being then the father of two boys. There I had occasion to make her acquain-tance, and we exchanged visits over a long while; she too was famous for her love of everything charming and beautiful. And one morning I was startled by news I would scarcely have believed, had your grandfather not been in the mutasarrif's residence at the very hour it happened!"

Here we all asked with one voice:

— "And what happened, pray?"

Our beloved grand-mother answered, smiling and threatening:

— "You shall learn what happened at the end of the story. Listen to it patiently, without interrupting me — or I shall hold my tongue!"

And she went on:

— "You must know that the events of this story took place fifty years ago, when houses were without the conveniences of

modern building — that is, when the baths were in the market-places, for people at large. One evening Iffet Hanim, the mutasar-rif's wife, went out to bathe with her maidservant. Supper time came, but she had not returned home; Ismail Effendi grew uneasy and sent someone to ask the reason for her lateness. After a little the messenger came back saying that 'the Hanim Efendi' had not yet finished her bath and would return in half an hour.

Ismail Effendi was astonished at this excuse. And when his wife came in, her face flushed with the redness the heat of the bath had left upon it, he asked her in wonder:

— 'May God make it a blessing, Umm Anis! But tell me — since when do you spend five hours at the bath?'

Iffet Hanim answered him:

— 'I shall tell you my tale; give me a moment.'

The two sat down, each trying to conceal what was within: Ismail Effendi trying to conceal his vex-ation, and Iffet Hanim trying to conceal her delight! And suddenly she began:

— 'Abu Anis, before I entered the bathing chamber I met a houri from the houris of Paradise — a lady more beautiful than any my eye has ever fallen upon; and the meeting with her, and listening to her sweet talk, made me forget the passing of the hours. I saw her when I sat down to rest in the outer court of the bath, before the pool of water; she was laying