Waziren, a merchant’s wife, came to visit Maryam, the wife of a moonshee. Both of the women had been baptized as Christians, but the heart of Waziren still clung to many of the customs of her people; she retained prejudices in which she had been brought up from her childhood. Waziren never came to church, lest she should break pardah; and would have thought it unseemly to meet at a meal even the dearest friend of her husband. Waziren cared not to learn to read; her only pleasure was in her jewels, and in gossip, in which her favourite topic always was the faults of her neighbours. It was for the sake of talking over news that Waziren now took her seat on the charpai (low bed) of Maryam.
“Are the tidings true,” asked Waziren, “that your next-door neighbour, Shadi Shah, arrived last night from England, a week before he was expected?”
“It is quite true,” Maryam replied. “It was a great joy to Fatima to see her husband again after a six months’ absence.”
“A great joy, was it?” said Waziren sneeringly; and she smiled an unpleasant smile. “I should have thought that Fatima would have cared little if the absence of her husband had been one of six years, instead of six months.”
Maryam looked almost angry, for she saw that evil thoughts were in the mind of her neighbour. “Fatima is a good and faithful wife,” she replied. “Had Shadi Shah remained away for six years, he would, on his return, have found her just the same as if he had never left her. Do you not know, O Waziren! that Fatima has kept in strict pardah all the time of her husband’s absence?”
“In pardah!” exclaimed the astonished Waziren. “Now, for once, O Maryam! I have found you uttering words of untruth! I happen to know that Fatima has been to church every week since her husband’s departure. I am sure that she on foot has visited friends; nay, I have even heard that she has taught in a school!” Waziren looked duly indignant and shocked at such a breach of Oriental customs, though quite aware that Maryam did all the things which she professed to think so strange.
“Fatima has done all this,” replied Maryam, smiling; “and yet she has kept strict pardah.”
“You amaze me!” cried the merchant’s wife.
“Perhaps you have never heard that in Fatima’s house there is a very fine pardah, beautiful and perfect, though of great antiquity,” said Maryam. “This pardah is more valuable than any shawl or Cashmere, or piece of golden embroidery, crusted all over with jewels!”
“I think that you must have lost your wits!” exclaimed Waziren, more and more astonished. “I know no woman with fewer jewels than Fatima. I am sure that she cannot love her stingy husband. If she has such a splendid pardah, she never had it from him. Pray, have you ever seen this wonderful pardah?”