The mother resumed her easy position against the cushion, while the son took place on the divan, his head in her lap.

Both of them, looking out of the opening, could see a stretch of lower house-tops in the vicinity, a bank of blue-blackness over in the west which they knew to be mountains, and the sky, its shadowy depths brilliant with stars.

The city was still.

Only the winds stirred.
"Amrah tells me something has happened to you," she said, caressing his cheek.

"When my Judah was a child, I allowed small things to trouble him, but he is now a man.