Both in town and country intrigues are common, but intrigues which
have not even the excuse of the blindness of love, whose only motive
is animal passion. The husband who, on returning home, finds a pair
of red slippers before the door of his wife's apartment, is bound to
understand thereby that somebody else's wife or daughter is within,
and he dare not approach. If he has suspicions, all he can do is
to bide his time and follow the visitor home, should the route lie
through the streets, or despatch a faithful slave-girl or jealous
concubine on a like errand, should the way selected be over
the roof-tops. In the country, under a very different set of
conventionalities, much the same takes place.

In a land where woman holds the degraded position which she does under
Islám, such family circles as the Briton loves can never exist. The
foundation of the home system is love, which seldom links the members
of these families, most seldom of all man and wife. Anything else is
not to be expected when they meet for the first time on their wedding
night. To begin with, no one's pleasure is studied save that of
the despotic master of the house. All the inmates, from the poor
imprisoned wives down to the lively slave-girl who opens the door, all
are there to serve his pleasure, and woe betide those who fail.

The first wife may have a fairly happy time of it for a season, if her
looks are good, and her ways pleasing, but when a second usurps her
place, she is generally cast aside as a useless piece of furniture,
unless set to do servile work. Although four legal wives are allowed
by the Korán, it is only among the rich that so many are found, on
account of the expense of their maintenance in appropriate style. The
facility of divorce renders it much cheaper to change from time to
time, and slaves are more economical. To the number of such women that