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“Thus only do I bless thee, O my dear!” He kissed Milhem warmly on both cheeks.

For a moment they clung together, white dawn on their faces. Then Shems-ud-dìn whispered:

“God bless thee, O my brother, now, and in the hour of death, and in the last day.”

He climbed back into the saddle and rode lonely away, followed by shouts of good will from all the escort. He felt nothing, saw nothing, thought of nothing, for a long while.

Just as he reached that turn of the wady whence the town is first seen, the sun glanced out behind him. Himself in deep shadow, he beheld all the opposite slope, dwarf town, giant ruins, a few poor fruit trees, bathed of a sudden in a rich glow, like nothing earthly, beneath a sky grape blue and full of stars. He drew rein, gaping at the vision. There were the peasants going to their tillage among the rocks; there were the veiled ones tripping down to the spring, each with arms upcurved to sustain the pitcher upon her head. In that ruddy glow they flitted as thin shades. He could realize nothing, remember nothing. The place seemed foreign to him.