call
it?--is very good, too," said John Carvel, who was tasting pilaff for
the first time.

"Your carnal love of food always shocks me, John," murmured
Chrysophrasia. "But I dare say there is a good deal that is Oriental on
the other side. There, I am sure, we should be sitting on very precious
carpets, and eating sweetmeats with golden spoons, while some fair young
Circassian slave sang wild melodies and played upon a rare old inlaid
lute."

"Yes," I answered. "I have dined with Turks in Stamboul."

"Oh, do describe it!" exclaimed Miss Dabstreak.

"We squatted on the floor around a tiny table, and we devoured ragouts
of mutton and onions with our fingers," I said.

"How very disgusting!" Miss Dabstreak made an unaesthetic grimace, and
looked at me with profound contempt.

"But I suppose they eat other things, Griggs?" asked John, laughing.

"Yes. But mutton and onions and pilaff are the staple of their
consumption. They eat jams of all sorts. Sometimes soup is brought in in
a huge bowl, and put down in the middle of the table. Then each one dips
in his spoon in the order of precedence, and eats as much as he can.
They will give you a dozen courses in half an hour, and they never speak
at their meals if they can help it."

"Pigs!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, whose delicacy did not always assert
itself in her selection of epithets.

"No; I assure you," I objected, "they are nothing of the kind. They
consider it cleaner to eat with their fingers, which they can wash
themselves, than with forks, which are washed in a common bath of
soapsuds by the grimy hands of a scullery maid. It is not so
unreasonable."

"You have such a terrible way of putting things, Mr. Griggs!" exclaimed
Mrs. Carvel in a tone of gentle protest. "But I dare say," she added, as
though fearing lest her mild rebuke should have hurt my feelings,--"I
dare say you are quite right."

"To tell the truth," I answered, "I am rather fond of the Turks."

"I have always noticed," remarked Madame Patoff, "that you Americans
generally admire people who live under a despotic government. Americans
all like Russia and Russians."

"Our government is not quite despotic," observed Paul, who felt bound to
defend his country. "We have laws, and the laws are respected. The Czar
would not think of acting against the established law, even though in
theory he might."

"The Turks must have laws, too," objected Madame Patoff.

"I don't know," said Chrysophrasia