"
"Truly, Sitta Nefysseh, your audacity is great!" cried Cousrouf.
"But, it seems to me, yours is far greater; forgive me for saying
so, highness. Man and woman we stand before each other, and you have
publicly branded the woman, who is conscious of no shame, with
disgrace."
"How can you make such a charge against me? What is it that I have
done? You yourself acknowledge that the master is justly responsible
for his servants' actions, and I repeat it: your kachef has
endeavored to draw my soldiers from their allegiance, to corrupt
them. I have accused you of nothing else."
"Yes, you have more than accused me of other crimes!" cried she,
throwing back her veil, her eyes sparkling with indignation. "Look
at me! In me, you have put the woman, put Mourad Bey's widow to
shame. You have caused me to be brought from my house by policemen.
That is to say, you have insulted, in me, womanly virtue and honor!"
"How so?" asked Cousrouf, in astonishment.
"Do you know so little of the customs of our land? You, the Viceroy
of Egypt, do not know that, when women are led through the street by
the police, it is equivalent to branding them as lost to all shame;
that they are delivered over to the police to be punished by being
conducted through the public streets, to the disgrace of their
entire sex!"
"You go too far," replied the viceroy. "I did cause you to be
conducted here.
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