eping across the entrance of the tent. I do
believe we should have left him entombed in the desert sands, if John's
dressing-case had been lost!'

'What a capital likeness of John,' said Theodora. 'Mamma would be quite
jealous of it.'

'It belonged to my sister,' said Percy. 'He got it done by an Italian,
who has made him rather theatrically melancholy; but it is a good
picture, and like John when he looked more young-mannish and sentimental
than he does now.'

A hiss and cluck made Violet start. In a dark corner, shrouded by the
curtain, sat Pallas Athene, the owl of the Parthenon, winking at the
light, and testifying great disapproval of Arthur, though when her
master took her on his finger, she drew herself up and elevated her
pretty little feathery horns with satisfaction, and did not even object
to his holding her to a great tabby cat belonging to the landlady, but
which was most at home on the hearth-rug of the good-natured lodger.

'I always read my compositions to them,' said Percy. 'Pallas acts
sapient judge to admiration, and Puss never commits herself, applauding
only her own music--like other critics. We reserve our hisses for
others.'

'How do you feed the owl, Percy?'

'A small boy provides her with sparrows and mice for sixpence a dozen.
I doubted whether it was cruelty to animals, but decided that it was
diverting the spirit of the chase to objects more legitimate than
pocket-handkerchiefs.'

'Ho! so there you seek your proteges!'

'He sought me. I seized him fishing in my pocket. I found he had no
belongings, and that his most commodious lodging-house was one of the
huge worn-out boilers near Nine-Elms--an illustration for Watts's Hymns,
Theodora.'

'Poor little creature!' said Violet, horrified. 'What will become of
him?'

'He is doing justice to the patronage of the goddess of wisdom,' said
Percy. 'He is as sharp as a needle, and gets on in the world--has
discarded "conveying," and promoted himself to selling lucifers.'

'A happy family theirs will be,' said Arthur. 'Cat, owl, and two rival
pages!'

So, having duly admired all, curious books, potteries, red and black,
tiles and lachrymatories, coins, scraps of ancient armour, a stuffed
bee-eater, and the bottled remains of a green lizard that had been a pet
at Constantinople--and having been instructed in the difference between
various Eastern modes of writing--the merry visit closed; and as the two
sisters went home they planned a su