She spoke evenly, though for the moment the longing to strangle something had transferred itself to the saffron-coloured sugar-drop all spangled with silver which had emerged from its chrysalis of a _burka_. What business had the poor thin creature with such garments when _her_ beauty was hidden by mere rags? Burfâni laughed in her turn; an easy, indifferent laugh, and stretched out her slim henna-dyed palm with the usual friendly offering of cardamoms. "Take one, sister," she said soothingly, "they are good for spleen and excessive grief. _Hai! Hai!_ thou wilt be forlorn, indeed, now thy occupation is gone." Lâzîzan, with her mouth full of spices, tittered again more artificially than ever. "I can do other things, perchance, beside suckle babes. Maybe I weary of it, and am glad of a change." The saffron-coloured sugar-drop, seated on a low stool in front of the white-sheeted bed with its solemn little gaily-dressed burden, looked at its companion distastefully through its long lashes, and the slender, henna-dyed hand, catching some loops of the jasmine chaplets it wore, held them like a bouquet close to the crimson-tinted lips. "It is a virtuous task, my sister," quoth Burfâni, gravely sniffing away at the heavy perfume, as if she needed something to make her environment less objectionable. "Besides, it is ever a mistake to forsake the profession of one's birth--" "And wherefore should I?" interrupted Lâzîzan, seizing her opportunity recklessly. "Hast thou forsaken it, and are we not sisters?" Again a cold, critical look of dislike came from the long, narrow eyes with their drowsy lids. "Such words are idle, sister. Forget them. Thou wouldst not find it easier--" "How canst tell?" interrupted Lâzîzan once more. "As well say that thou couldst put up with my life." The saffron and silver daintiness shifted its look towards the bed, and the henna-dyed hand straightened a wrinkle in the sheet softly. "God knows!" she said with a sudden smile. "Anyhow, sister, 'tis not wise to change one's profession as one grows old."