He had said nothing of Naomi to the Mahdi even when he told him of his vision; but all his hopes had centred in the child.

The lot of the sin-offering must be gone from her now, and in the resurrection he would meet her without shame.

If he had brought fruits meet to repentance, then must her debt also be wiped away.

Surely never before had any child been so smitten of God, and never had any father of an afflicted child bought God's mercy at so dear a price! Such were the thoughts that Israel cherished secretly, though he dared not to utter them, lest he should seem to be bribing God out of his love of the child.

And thus if his heart was glad as he turned towards home, it was proud also, and if it was grateful it was also vain; but vanity and pride were both smitten out of it in an hour, before he went through the gates of Fez (wherein he had slept the night preceding), by three sights which, though stern and pitiful, were of no uncommon occurrence in that town and province.
First, it chanced that as he was passing from the south-east of the new town of Fez to the gate that is at the north-west corner, going by the high walls of the Sultan's hareem, where there is room for a thousand women, and near to the Karueein mosque that is the greatest in Morocco and rests on eight hundred pillars, he came upon two slaveholders selling twelve or fourteen slaves.