The elder woman's face took on seriousness beneath its impatience. "I am not of the latest," she said, "though in truth I be later in life's journey than they. Yet even in my youth"--her sparkling bright eyes roved contemptuously over the other's dress--"I did not clothe myself after--after Satanstown! And thou growest old, Azîzan! Thou hast a daughter--but where is she?--did not they say she was with thee?"
"The child was beguiled bathward by Lady Umm Kulsum whom we met," bridled the Bibi.
"The child?" echoed Aunt Rosebody; "Lo! she will be giving thee dates ere long--ha--ha!"
She chuckled over her own little joke, for the giving of dates is the first step toward a wedding; but the Bibi tossed her head.
"She is but eight, and I protest is quite a babe--not one thought of marriage."
Auntie Rosebody leant back and yawned. "Eleven," she said calmly, "or twelve maybe. 'Tis thirteen since the ill-fated caravan left Persia, and on the way thy child was born. Strange, surely, that such close touch on death as must have been thine ere thou and her father could have left her--as thou didst--to die in the desert, should not have brought thee some sense in life! How about the betrothal to Sher Afkân?"
Bibi Azîzan gave an affected little scream.
"La! there 'tis! Did I not tell her father that if he would insist on sending the country-bumpkin a platter of welcome that the old tale would be revived. La! 'tis too vexing! I could cry; and my sweet poppet whom I long to keep always as my little babe, my perfect innocent! I protest, madam, I would kill any bridegroom."
"Oh fie! marmie!" came a laughing voice behind--"Not Prince Salîm, I will wager!"
Both women looked round with a start to see, holding back the wadded curtain, such a vision of youth and perfect loveliness as the world shows but seldom; yet once having shown does not let men forget. For this small slender Eastern maid, comparable at her eleven years to Western fourteen, was to take her place amongst the beauty which has swayed the destiny of empires.