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Updated: June 4, 2025
Ourïeda told it, while overhead on the balcony her Aunt Mabrouka Tahar's mother chatted of the merchants in Djazerta who sold silks from Tunis and perfumes from Algiers. The plan was very hateful, very dangerous and treacherous. But it was to save Ourïeda.
Sanda might have gone to bid Ourïeda good-bye at the last minute: that would be natural; and it was the last minute, because the sky was changing its night purple for the gray of dawn, and from the distant courtyard Lella Mabrouka had heard some time ago the grunting of the camels.
His face was stained dark brown, and nearly hidden by the hood of a ragged burnous. But I recognized the eyes. They looked into mine. I realized that he must have been waiting for me to pass with Aunt Mabrouka. He knew of course that whenever possible we went on Friday to the cemetery. I almost fainted with joy; but Allah gave me presence of mind, and strength to hide my feelings.
But the girl's great eyes were fixed and introspective. When Sanda was sure that Lella Mabrouka and Taous, her spy, were both intent on the figure posturing in the cleared space in the centre of the room, she cautiously unfolded the ball of paper. Holding it on her lap, half hidden by the frame of her hands, she saw a fine, clear black writing, a writing new to her.
"And though we poor Arabs are behind these modern times in many ways, we would die rather than betray a trust." That was a stroke well aimed under the roses of courtesy, and Sanda could but receive it in silence. She had supposed when Lella Mabrouka spoke of the caravan not going that it was only a threat.
Freeing one hand as easily as if Ourïeda's weight had been that of a baby, she took the weapon and slipped it into her dress. Whether she meant to show the dagger to her mistress, or to keep it for herself, who could say? Sanda would not leave Ourïeda when the girl had been laid on the bed by Taous, but presently, after half an hour's absence, Lella Mabrouka returned.
"How wonderful it is here!" she half whispered, and Ourïeda answered impatiently: "Yes, it is wonderful; but don't let us talk of it, or even think of it any more, because I have so much to say to you, and Aunt Mabrouka will send to call us if my father comes. Besides, we can see this on any night when the wind does not blow."
There might be a simple and innocent reason for what struck Lella Mabrouka as mysterious, but she determined to find out. In Ourïeda's green and gold bed from Tunis lay Sanda in a nightdress of Ourïeda's with her head wrapped up as Ourïeda's was often wrapped by Embarka as a cure for headache. Instantly the whole plot was clear to the mother of Tahar.
Yet Sanda could not rid herself of the impression that some hidden drama was being secretly played in this fountain court of sunshine and flowers. "Come up on the roof with me, and I will tell you that thing I have been waiting to tell you," said Ourïeda. "Aunt Mabrouka will not follow us there, because she hates going up the narrow stairs with the high steps.
Sanda said nothing at all, knowing that she would but make matters worse by speaking. But if she had had the slightest hope that Lella Mabrouka might be deceived by Ourïeda's plausible excuse, the cold glint of black eyes staring at her in the lamplight would have stabbed it to death.
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