“In the parting audience my uncle informed me that he would no longer push my fortunes so openly, for fear of jealousies, but that I must make my own way on from the start he had given me. He would make me an allowance of money, which he named and I thought most handsome. Then came his last word of advice. It was to associate only with those who could further my career. He said, laughing, that he was afraid lest my father’s son should waste time in the profitless frequentation of learned madmen, in relieving the wants of scabby beggars, who said never ‘The Lord reward thee.’ He need not have thus adjured me, for already I was the son of his teaching. “So it came to pass, O my father, that when I came to this city, and found myself a personage courted and admired, I forbore to think on the little place of my birth, or on the friends of my youth, but made all my endeavor to appear the greatest possible, vaunting my high lineage and powerful connections. I sent no word unto thee, O my father, nor let anyone suspect thy presence upon earth. I even told a comrade, who inquired of me somewhat straitly, that I was an orphan, and that my father had been a great statesman on the pattern of my uncle Milhem.” A deep groan from the mouth of the passage caused Abd-ur-Rahman to cease speaking and start to his feet. “Some one listens. May his house be destroyed!” “Who is out there?” called Shems-ud-dìn; and the voice of Zeyd made answer: “It is I, O my master, and with me Mâs the black.” “O insolence! May their fathers perish!” cried Abd-ur-Rahman. “Nay, curse them not, my son. They are folk of our own house. In my distress, when thou and Shibli and all others left me, this Zeyd was hands and feet and ears and eyes to me. Mâs thou knowest of old; I have no need to tell thee who he is. Continue, O my soul!” “When I received the letter warning of thy coming, which reached me in the same hour when thou shouldst arrive, I knew not what countenance to adopt. Indeed my surprise was great, for I had not written to thee, and who, I wondered, could have informed thee of my existence in El Cûds? One half of me yearned for thy blessing, while the other hung back for fear lest by thy means some of my pretensions should be belied. “When I beheld thee riding in so strange-looking a company, when I found thee resolute to pursue thy dealings with the Frank physician, I determined thenceforth to visit thee only in secret, and to refute every rumor of our relationship which might get abroad. Thanks to the garrulity of Hassan Agha, I was driven thrice to contradict that kind of rumor.” The narrator paused, sobbing. Again a hollow groan from the mouth of the tunnel made him wince. But he soon recovered enough force to proceed in a broken voice: