regulations require that policemen be moved among the traffic posts of the city from time to time.

She shook her head and said gloomily:

— I will not hide from you that some days ago I drove through every street of the city in my car, searching for him, and did not find him. Is he ill, I wonder? Or has he died, his tender bough snapped off?

Then she burst into tears, saying:

— Is death, O Lord, decreed for the young men who resemble him? Why? Why? And what sin have I committed, that I should be stricken twice by the one I lost??

After I had managed to calm her distress, I promised her I would do my utmost to find him, and I swore to her that I would hide nothing from her of the result of my effort. Suddenly my face

brightened with a flash of hope and I said:

— Be at ease! I have found the way that will serve. The brother of my dressmaker (Rose) is a commissioner in the police direc-torate. I shall go to visit her this afternoon and tell her a plausible story, then ask her to question her brother about that young policeman who spent a whole year directing traffic among the three traffic posts of the "Salihiyya" quarter. It is very likely that I shall bring you the true news tomorrow or the day after.

When I had finished speaking, Alya took me by surprise with this:

— You must know, too, that he signaled me to stop on the last day I saw him, as I was crossing the intersection where he stood in the middle, as usual. It was early morning and the traffic was light. I stopped beside his stand, lowered

the window glass, and stared into his face in astonishment and wonder. He bent down, seized by a certain shyness and confusion, and then said, after gathering his courage:

— Good morning! Forgive me, Miss, if I intrude and ask you: why do you not change your black clothes? You are young, and life lies before you, awaiting your smile so as to answer it with a better one. I answered him only with a nervous twitch that drew the muscles of my face tight while redness rose over it, so he added, stammering:

— It is your kindness and good-ness, which I see every day, that emboldened me to speak to you. I beg your pardon if I have behaved

badly... Please pass, please, I beg you, and make way for the car waiting behind you.

And while I was preparing to move the car, I found