Waziren, a merchant’s wife, came to visit Maryam, the wife of a moonshee. Both of the women had been baptized as Christians, but the heart of Waziren still clung to many of the customs of her people; she retained prejudices in which she had been brought up from her childhood. Waziren never came to church, lest she should break pardah; and would have thought it unseemly to meet at a meal even the dearest friend of her husband. Waziren cared not to learn to read; her only pleasure was in her jewels, and in gossip, in which her favourite topic always was the faults of her neighbours. It was for the sake of talking over news that Waziren now took her seat on the _charpai_ (low bed) of Maryam.