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“O my dear, O light of my eyes, O my breath!” cried Shems-ud-dìn, when he could speak for amazement. “Why hast thou kept silence? Is it for this thou didst shun me? Fie on thy pride! Thou hast a share in this business, as in all belonging to me. Talk not of begging when thou hast a trade. There is but little now in my hand; but to-morrow or the day after I will pay thee all I can collect. Of the rest we will speak later. Have no fear! All mine is thine; and, by the blessing of Allah, it may be that my patrimony has increased while thine wasted.”

Milhem wept on his brother’s neck and called him kindest of the sons of Adam.

“By my life, he has earned the right to bear me company,” he murmured as he went his way. “May Allah requite him! And if, in such close converse, he should discover a little thing to my disadvantage, it is so decreed. Allah knows, a man of my employments cannot keep the habits of a saint.”

He vowed before God to keep strict watch upon himself, to avoid giving offense to his brother’s piety. But he had forgotten the vow, or recanted, when the day of departure came.