but a feeble way of expressing the state of her mind. Although a lady of great moral courage, and accustomed from infancy to self-control, she felt, on first beholding her timid little daughter, strongly disposed to seize Fatma by the hair of the head, and use her as a bludgeon wherewith to fell her Algerine mother; but, remembering the dignity of her position as, in some sort, a reflected representative of the British Empire in these parts, and also recalling to mind the aptitude of Algerine gentlemen to tie up in sacks and drown obstreperous Algerine ladies, she restrained herself, bit her lips, and said nothing.
Fortunately at that moment it became necessary to conduct the bride to her future lord's apartment, which, for the time, was in another part of the same mansion.
To the cry of "Lai! lai! lella!" which was meant to express great joy, and was always raised at Moorish weddings, the guests conducted poor Zara to her "fate."
That evening Hanyfa sat at the feet of her lord, Sidi Hamet, and watched the curls of smoke which, arising from the bowl of his magnificent hookah, rolled like cannon-wreaths from beneath his frowning and no less magnificent moustache.
"Zooloo is a smart girl," said Hamet, referring to something that had just been said.
"She is," assented Hanyfa.
