[They regard each other attentively.]

Sobeide.
It is long since
We saw each other.

Gülistane.
What com'st thou here
To do?

Sobeide.
Then thou liv'st here?—I come to question Ganem

(Faltering.)

About a matter—on which much depends—
Both for my father—

Gülistane.
Hast not seen him lately?
Ganem, I mean.

Sobeide.
Nay, 'tis almost a year.
Since Kamkar died, thy husband, 'tis four years.
I know the day he died. How long hast thou
Lived here?

Gülistane.
They are my kin. What is't to thee,
How long? But then, what odds? Why then, three years.

[Sobeide is silent.]