"And your mother?" asked the lawyer.
"How can one, born as I, know his mother?" replied Abdullah.
"And you," said the lawyer, turning to Nicha, "who is your father?"
"Ilderhim of El Merb," she answered.
"And your mother?" asked the lawyer.
"She died before I can remember."
"Her father, Ilderhim," said the oukil, "signs the invoice which you have read. He does not consent."
"He is nobody," said the lawyer. "He was banished from Algeria years ago. It is as though he had never existed."
"I had overlooked that," said the oukil; and then he added, "As the mistake this time is mine, perhaps you will again shake hands."
"No," said the lawyer; "I pay penance only when I am in the wrong."