Page:Marion Crawford - Khaled.djvu/86

 not speak. 'Who is she?' he inquired of the other women.

'She is an unbeliever,' they answered contemptuously. 'And she is proud, for she trusts in her white skin and her blue eyes, and her hair which is red without henna. She thinks she is better than we. Command us to uncover our faces, that you may see and judge between us.'

'Let it be so. Let us see who is the fairest,' said Khaled, and he laughed.

Then the woman who sat at his feet threw aside her veil, and all the others did the same. Khaled saw that the one was certainly more beautiful than the rest, for her skin was as white as milk, and her eyes like the sea of Oman when it is blue in winter. She had also long hair, plaited in three tresses which came down to her feet, red as the locusts when the sun shines upon them at evening, and not dyed.

'There is a bay mare in a stable of black ones,' Khaled said. 'What is the name of the bay mare?'

'Her name is Aziz, and she is a Christian,' said one of the women.

'Not Aziz—Almasta,' said the beautiful woman in an accent which showed that she could not speak Arabic fluently. 'Almasta, a Christian.'

'She was lately sent as a present to our master by the Emir of Basrah,' said one of the others.