. "I already feel a delicious
sensation, as though I might be strangled with a bow-string at any
moment and dropped into the Bosphorus."

John Carvel looked very grave. Perhaps he was offering up a silent
prayer to the end that such a consummation might soon be reached; but
more probably he considered the topic of sudden death by violence as one
to be avoided. Macaulay Carvel came to the rescue.

"The Turks have laws," he said, fluently. "All their law is founded upon
the Koran, and they are most ingenious in making the Koran answer the
purpose of our more learned and therefore more efficacious codes. The
Supreme Court really exists in the person of the Sheik ul Islam, who may
be called the High Pontiff, a sort of Pontifex Maximus with judicial
powers. All important cases are ultimately referred to him, and as most
of these important cases are connected with the Vakuf, the real estate
held by the mosques, like our glebe lands at home, it follows that the
Sheik ul Islam generally decides in favor of his own class, who are the
Ulema, or priests. The consequences of this mode of administering the
laws are very"----

"Capital!" exclaimed John Carvel. "Where on earth did you learn all
that, my boy?"

"I began to coach the East when I saw there was a chance of my coming
here," answered Macaulay, much pleased at his father's acknowledgment of
his learning. It struck me that the young man had got his information
out of some rather antiquated book, in which no mention was made of the
present division of the civil and criminal courts under the Ministry of
Justice, and of the ecclesiastical courts under the Sheik ul Islam. But
I held my peace, being grateful to Macaulay for delivering his lecture
at the right moment. Mrs. Carvel looked with undisguised admiration at
her son, and even Hermione smiled and felt proud of her brother.

"Wonderful, this modern education, is it not?" said John Carvel, turning
to me.

"Amazing," I replied.

"I want to see all those delightful creatures, you know," said
Chrysophrasia. "The Sultan and the Sheik--what do you call him?"

"Sheik ul Islam," said the ready Macaulay.

"Sheik Ool is lamb!" repeated Chrysophrasia, thoughtfully. "Lamb,--so
symbolical in our own very symbolic religion. It means so much, you
know."

"Chrysophrasia!" ejaculated Mary Carvel, in a tone of gentle reproach.
She thought she detected the far-off shadow of a possible irreverence in
her sister's tone. Macaulay aga