that she exposes herself

to the servant's mockery, when she comes back to her, exactly as she herself used to deal with her. No! She will cling to the plan, stubborn, whatever sweat she pours out and however toil sets her panting! For the law of cleaning ordains beginning from above, not from below; and from the rear before the front, lest the latter be robbed of its splendor. Nor may the covered cube be neglected, lest it brim over with filth and flood the polished surface. And so on down the whole list of "lests"!

She greeted her appointed day with a great deal of optimism. Her forces raced to the deed before the ray of light had flung its ropes from the mountains to the foothills. On the point of departure she began issuing hurried instructions to Issam and Alya and Diya not to fail in shutting fast the windows and doors of the summer house — and then to join her with their father in the city that evening, so as not to be late for their appointments fixed for the following morning. In vain would she have consented to let any of them accompany her: she had never tasted the humiliation of drudgery until after she married. And when the transport wagon blared the signal for departure, she took leave of them with a prayer to keep their days safe from the cares of the axes spinning their rounds in our present world.

The house received her with bated breath, glowering and scowling. She stood at the threshold, surveying the tokens spread here and there: the shrouded pieces of furniture, still with the stillness of the dead. And she started in alarm to find herself nearer to a gravedigger than to a conquering warrior — so she took a firm grip of faith and rushed to grope for the openings of light and air; but these served only to deepen her anguish with what they laid bare, before her astounded eyes, of the landmarks of extinction.

In the wall clock she found the sole living thing that could be wakened. She set its two hands turning; and at the answering sound of its ticking she breathed a happy sigh and fell to rummaging among the wreckage for a costume befitting her grave mission. Before setting to work in earnest she reviewed the objectives: should she begin with the munitions store, or the sleeping barracks, or the halls of recreation?

The clock struck seven — the very trumpet of war and contest! And my lady answered the call of duty with the elation of the most valiant of soldiers, in fullest readiness and completest equipment. Donning her gear, she too began from the top, after the plan of attack: on her head she clamped a helmet of worn swaddling-cloth of faded colors; her tempting bareness — as though she were a young Spartan — was covered by the pieces of a dangling, tattered jacket; and on her feet she strapped the remnants of a sandal in the Greek style. And straightaway she sprang to the long pole

— a couched lance that darted out between her

well-aimed strokes, hunting the glittering threads of the spiders on that glorious morning!

She gave herself up to waking dreams, braced by deeds and warranted by struggle. Tomorrow the Athenians shall enjoy the limpid air needed for the work of the mind. The children are all Athenians, God be praised: seekers of knowledge, lovers of truth. As for the father, his successful deals mark him out to rival the genius of Alexander the Great!

Scarcely had an hour passed when my lady, deep in her ordered operations, was caught off guard by a knocking at the door. With the intuition of the seasoned soldier she knew that relief had come. Hastening toward it she all but tumbled, near the entrance, into an ambush of refuse — when there loomed above her the apparition of a fair-haired, bespeckled damsel, who was none other than the servant, transfigured by her rough garments and burnished by perfumes! She burst in upon her mistress like a thunderclap, then returned with the speed of arrows, gripping with her hennaed fingertips the bag of winter clothes. And she flew from the house, shaking off what dust had clung to her. And the fall of her triumphant feet had the boom of drum-rolls in the final scene, as though she were chanting the anthem of liberty:

"The decisive battle has tipped the scale!"