"No."
"Then you are not from El-Maan?"
"Who said I was?"
"I thought you did."
"Nay, the words were yours, khawaja." * [* Lit., gentleman-sir]
"Please tell me where you come from."
"From beyond El-Maan."
She made a gesture with one hand and her shoulder that suggested illimitable distances.
"From which place beyond El-Maan?"
She laughed, and you felt she did it not in self-defense, but out of sheer amusement.