I can make as much of a bad hand as most people. My pigeons are the best in the city. As for kite-flying, I can cut the strings of the largest kites with a dhelchi.* In Zauk's words, 'What is there that I cannot do?' My father has seen my odes, and knows their excellence. Yesterday it was 'Bravo! bravo!' To-day I am so ignorant that I must go to school. Say your prayers, don't associate with your friends, don't play cards,' is the order now. 'Gambler turned pilgrim,' with a vengeance!"

His mother replied: "Kulleem, your father knows all this, and knows, too, how difficult it will be to persuade such a one as you to give up his bad habits. He blames himself and not his children; but it is none the less his duty to try and bring them into the right path, and clear himself from reproach in the future."

"I say again, let him do his duty by the younger ones, and leave me alone," doggedly replied her son.

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And have you reflected what is to be the end of all this?" inquired his mother.

"Oh! I daresay he'll be angry enough, but I shall keep out of the way, and you'll soon persuade him to come round."

"You are wrong in your calculations. If I thought this was to be the end of it, I wouldn't have troubled

* This is the cheapest and smallest kind of kite, in the shape of a square. The skill of the kite-flyer is shown in drawing the string of his own kite across that of his rival's so as to cut it through.

myself to speak to you at all. Your father is in earnest; and I, for one, shall not oppose his wishes."

"Yes, you are all afraid of him," said Kulleem with a

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sneer. A fig for such piety, say I, which is won by loaves and fishes. I swear I would have left home long ago, had I known things would come to this."

"Oh! Kulleem, you don't mean to leave home!" "What is there to prevent me?" he asked. “As they say, My legs itch to start."'

"Won't you listen to your mother? Surely a mother's love claims some consideration."

So saying, Fahmeedah broke down in a burst of tears. Soon after a letter was handed to Kulleem. She saw it was from her husband, and asked Kulleem what it contained.

He handed her the letter, which was as follows:

"My dear son, may God direct you. I have twice sent for you, but you have neither come nor sent an apology; and though nothing can excuse the disobedience of a son, yet surely some explanation was demanded by the usages of polite society. Allegiance is due, under God, to the head of the family from his dependents, as to a king; and, though I confess with shame that I have been a weak and faithless ruler hitherto, the time has come for me to exert my authority in removing the abuses which I have allowed to creep into my jurisdiction. I wished to speak to you on this subject, and hoped to have your co-operation as my eldest son. We have

passed our lives so far in neglect of the plain commands. of God, and reflection will convince you that my anxiety is not unreasonable. I have been close to death, and have realised the fact that sooner or later I must give account to God not only for myself but for my family.

"I am aware that young men like you have their doubts in religious matters, and this is not a crime, for doubt suggests inquiry, and brings assurance in the end. Had you come to me, perhaps I might have helped you. Your desertion has thrown me on my own resources, for I know too well the effect of your example on the rest; but, please God, I shall persevere in the course I have marked out. I can only add that if you determine to refuse compliance with my wishes, I, for my part, shall be content to sever the ties which now connect us. Adieu."

Fahmeedah returned the letter to her son with the inquiry, "Kulleem, do you now think that your father is deranged?"

"Think!" replied he. "I am certain of it." As someone says, 'If he is not mad, he certainly is not sane.' If to think himself a king is not madness, I don't know what is. Even he knows now that I do not intend to go to him."

"Alas! for your bad fate!" said his mother with a sigh. "Bad it may be, but bad is the best," quoted her incorrigible son.

His mother entreated him to read his father's letter

carefully once more; but she had hardly finished speaking when Salihah's dooli was announced, and she hurried to the zenana to receive her niece.

CHAPTER VIII.

NAEEMAH AND SALIHAH.

66 AND what is it all about?" said Salihah when her aunt came to her in the zenana. "Ulleem tells me there has been a quarrel, and says I must learn the rest from you."

Her aunt replied by telling her the whole story.

Salihah saw that she had a difficult task before her, and said cheerfully that she thought she could persuade her cousin to be reasonable, but that everyone must be kept out of the way during the interview, lest Naeemah's pride should again take fire. Her aunt knew as well as she did that wrong-doers are apt to detest the witnesses of their misconduct, and at once followed out the suggestion by ordering everybody out of that part of the house.

Salihah then passed quickly into the passages, calling "Naeemah! Naeemah!" as if she had just arrived, and wanted to see her cousin as usual. First she went