“Foolish lad!” answered his relative, now touched with annoyance. “It came from my untiring devotion to the public service, from my foresight in providing a magnificent bridge which for all those years no one had attempted; from the freely expressed desire of my fellow-citizens through their honoured representatives. It was, indeed, but a small recompense for all the good I had done and all the immeasurable advantage to this town which my energy had created.”
“Yes, dear uncle, but ...” went on the blushing lad.
“Oh, don’t listen to him,” cried his brothers in chorus. “You will never make him understand! Our father has always said that he could not even do his arithmetic,” and the shrill laugh of the youngest was heard at the end of his protest.
“Well, well,” said Mahmoud good-naturedly, “we will not quarrel about it.”
At that moment the intolerable shriek of the Muezzin calling the Faithful to prayer was heard from the neighbouring minaret and the somewhat strained situation was relieved.
MILH