One morning Aylo, in presence of the queen, speaking to Ozoro Esther of the stile of the Ras's letter to me, she confessed her own anxiety was the cause, but added, "You have often upbraided me with being, what you call, an unchristian enemy, in the advices you suppose I frequently give Michael; but now, if I am not as good a friend to Yagoube, who has saved my children, as I am a steady enemy to the Galla, who murdered my husband, say then Esther is not a Christian, and I forgive you." Many conversations of this kind passed between her and me, during the illness of Ayto Confu. I removed my bed to the outer door of Confu's chamber, to be ready whenever he should call, but his mother's anxiety kept her awake in his room all night, and propriety did not permit me to go to bed. From this frequent communication began a friendship between Ozoro Esther and me, which ever after subsisted without any interruption.
Our patients, being all likely to do well, were removed to a large house of Kasmati Eshté, which stood still within the boundaries of Koscam, while the rooms underwent another lustration and fumigation, after which they all returned; and I got, as my fee, a present of the neat and convenient house formerly belonging to Basha Eusebius, which had a separate entry, without going through the palace. Still I thought it better to obey Ras Michael's orders to the letter, and not stir out of Koscam, not even to Hagi Saleh's or Ayto Aylo's, though both of them frequently endeavoured to persuade me that the order had no such strict meaning. But my solitude was in no way disagreeable to me. I had a great deal to do. I mounted my instruments, my thermometer and barometer, telescopes and quadrant.Again
