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 "Wait a minute." I answered, hardly hearing what he said. "Semmeya Hanoum will be back in a minute."

He took up his station in the doorway, commanding both the room and the hall, and waited, listening intently. After a long while he went downstairs.

Again I was absorbed in my book when the eunuch returned, panting and frightened.

"My mistress! My mistress!" he shouted.

"What is it, stupid? What has happened to your mistress?"

"She has gone!"

"Gone where?"

"Away! Out of the house!" he wailed.

"She has outwitted both of us—myself and Yussuf at the gate of the garden. He was called away for a minute, and when he came back, my mistress had disappeared. Ai! ai! it was magic."

"Well, don't stand there wailing; run and tell your master," I said impatiently.

He looked at me in abject terror. "My master! I dare not. He would kill me."

"Then send for him, and I will tell him."

"And you will tell him that I faithfully obeyed his orders," he implored, "and that she did not escape through any negligence on my part?"

Even after I had reassured him on these points he departed trembling, and I went down to the