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 CHAPTER XVII

A GREAT LADY OF STAMBOUL

The earthquake subsided, and little by little people began to forget its terrors. Some who had old-fashioned houses plucked up courage to enter them, then to abandon their tents and stay in them. One day some young people laughed, and others echoed their laughter. Gradually the older people began to laugh, too; and the terrible shock which had killed so many thousands and unnerved so many more began to lose its hold upon the imagination of the people.

Before the month was over life became normal, and we talked of ordinary, everyday things. One day as I was sitting by my mother, making lace, she casually remarked:

"Nashan is going to be married, you know."

Of all my Turkish friends Nashan was the one my mother liked best. Perhaps this was because she felt she had a share in her bringing up, since the day on which she had been summoned by Nashan's mother to pass judgment on the little girl's clothes—the little girl whose raiment I had compared to that of a saltimbanque, when