Almansor came, he sent him with a servant to this room and had the boy
dressed after the fashion of his own country. From there the boy was
taken to a _salon_ called "Little Arabia." This _salon_ was adorned
with all kinds of artificially-grown trees--such as palms, bamboos,
young cedars, and the like; and also with flowers that grew only in the
Levant. Persian carpets lay on the floor, and along the walls were
cushions, but nowhere Frankish tables or chairs. Upon one of these
cushions the old professor would be found seated, but presenting quite
a different appearance from common. He had wound a fine Turkish shawl
about his head for a turban, and had fastened on a gray beard, that
reached to his sash, and looked for all the world, like the genuine
beard of an important man. With these he wore a robe that he had had
made from a brocaded dressing-gown, baggy Turkish trowsers, yellow
slippers, and, peaceful as he generally was, on these days he had
buckled on a Turkish sword, while in his sash stuck a dagger set with
false stones. He smoked from a pipe two yards long, and was waited on
by his servants, who were likewise in Persian costumes, and one half of
whom had been required to color their hands and face black.

[Illustration]

At first all this seemed very strange to the youthful Almansor; but
he soon found that these hours could be made very useful to him,
were he to join in the mood of the old man. While at the doctor's
he was not allowed to speak an Egyptian word, here the Frankish
language was forbidden. On entering, Almansor was required to give the
peace-greeting, to which the old Persian responded spiritedly, and then
he would beckon the boy to sit down near him, and began to speak
Persian, Arabic, Coptic, and all languages, one after another, and
considered this a learned Oriental entertainment. Near him stood a
servant--or, as he was supposed to be on these days, a slave--who held
a large book. This book was a dictionary; and when the old man stumbled
in his words, he beckoned to the slave, looked up what he wanted to
say, and then continued his speech.

The slaves brought in sherbet in Turkish vessels and to put the old man
in the best of humors, Almansor had only to say that every thing here
was just as it was in the Levant. Almansor read Persian beautifully,
and it was the chief delight of the old man to hear him. He had many
Persian manuscripts, from which the boy read to him, then the old man
would