movements, that I never knew where to
expect them. But the last slow, heavy legion which came crawling
insidiously on, were the most tormenting and sickening of all. To be
tortured by such a crowd of little fiends was enough to produce
delirium. But I will not recall the visions of the night. It was worse
than dreaming of being in purgatory!"

"I am sorry to hear that you had such shocking dreams," said Mrs.
Shortridge, who, as she came down the stairs, heard Lady Mabel's last
words, "I would have been thankful to be able to dream; but the mule
bells jingling under us all night were a trifling annoyance compared
to the mosquitos, fleas, and bugs, which scarcely allowed me a wink of
sleep."

"Sleep!" Lady Mabel exclaimed, "they murdered sleep, and mine were
waking torments."

"It is all owing to the filthy habits of the nation," continued
Mrs. Shortridge. "The very pigs and asses are as much a part of the
family as the children of the house."

"The fraternization of the human race with brutes, which prevails
here," L'Isle remarked, "certainly, promotes neither comfort nor
cleanliness. Indeed, it is curious, that as you go from north to
south, cleanliness should decline in the inverse ratio with the need
of it. Compared with ourselves, the French are not a cleanly people,
but become so when contrasted with their neighbors, the Spaniards, who
are, in turn, less filthy than the Portuguese, whose climate renders
cleanliness still more necessary."

"By that ratio, what standard of cleanliness will you find in
Morocco?" asked Lady Mabel.

"Perhaps a prominent and redeeming feature in their religion," said
L'Isle, "may exalt the standard there. Mahomedan ablutions may avail
much in this world, though little in the next."

"I am afraid," said Lady Mabel, "that their cleanly superstition will
make me almost regret the expulsion of the Moors."

The commissary was now bustling about, hurrying the preparations for
breakfast, and L'Isle went to see if the servants were getting ready
for the journey; but Mrs. Shortridge, full of the annoyances she had
suffered, continued to denounce their small enemies. Her talk was of
vermin.

Lady Mabel, thinking the subject had been sufficiently discussed,
interrupted her, saying, "you do not take the most philosophical and
poetical view of the subject. Is it not consolatory to reflect, that
while men, on suffering a reverse of fortune, too often experience
nothing but ingratitude and