It was Habeebah.She was now the slave of Ben Aboo, and was just then stealing away from the Kasbah in the early morning that she might go in search of Naomi, whose whereabouts and condition she had lately learned.
The two might have passed unknown, for Habeebah was veiled, but that Naomi had forgotten her blanket and was uncovered.
In another moment the poor frightened girl, with all her brave bearing gone, was weeping on the black woman's breast.
"Whither are you going?" said Habeebah.
"To my father," Naomi began."He is in prison; they say he is starving;I was taking food to him, but I am lost, I don't know my way;and besides--"
"The very thing!" cried Habeebah.
Habeebah had her own little scheme.It was meant to win emancipation at the hands of her master, and paradise for her soul when she died.
Naomi, who was a Jewess, was to turn Muslima.That was all.
Then her troubles would end, and wondrous fortune would descend upon her, and her father who was in prison would be set free.
Now, religion was nothing to Naomi; she hardly understood what it meant.
The differences of faith were less than nothing, but her father was everything, and so she clutched at Habeebah's bold promises like a drowning soul at the froth of a breaker.
"My father will be let out of prison? You are sure--quite sure?"she asked.
"Quite sure," answered Habeebah stoutly.
Naomi's hopes of ever reaching her father were now faint, and her poor little stock of eggs and bread looked like folly to her new-born worldliness.
"Very well," she said."I will turn Muslima."A few minutes afterwards she was riding by Habeebah's side into the town, through the Bab Toot across the Feddan, and up to the courtyard of the Kasbah, which had witnessed the beginning of her own and her father's degradation.Then, tethering the beast in the open stables there, Habeebah took Naomi into her own little room and left her alone for some minutes, while she hastened to Ben Aboo in secret with her wondrous news.