quickly, and
furnished her with food for thought which entirely engrossed her mind
until Agnes exclaimed--

"Oh mamma, look! look! they're going to shave a little boy!"

Mrs Langley, directed by Agnes's finger, looked and found that this was
indeed true. A little boy, between eight and nine years of age, was
seated in a barber's shop near them, with a towel about his neck,
glancing timidly, yet confidently, in the face of an elderly man who
advanced towards him with an open razor, as though about to cut his
throat. As it turned out, however, neither throat nor chin were in
danger of violation. It was the head that the barber attacked, and this
he scraped quite bare, without the aid of soap, leaving only a tuft of
hair on the top. This tuft, we have been informed, is meant as a handle
by means of which the owner may, after death, be dragged up into heaven!
but we rather incline to the belief that it is left for the purpose of
keeping the red fez or skull-cap on the head.

Be this as it may, no sooner did the urchin behold Mrs Langley, than,
casting aside the towel and ignoring the barber, he rushed out and
exclaimed--in a compound of French, Arabic, and Lingua Franca, of which
we give a free translation--

"Oh, missus, me massr, console Dansh, vants see ver moch your hosbund!"

"Thank you; I know it," replied Mrs Langley, giving the boy a small
coin and a bright smile.

Quite satisfied that he had fulfilled his duty, the urchin returned to
the barber and the lady proceeded to the palace.

Here she was received ceremoniously by the father of Ashweesha, Sidi
Cadua, a mild, gentle-spirited, little old Turk, who would have made a
very fine old English gentleman, but who was about as well fitted to be
father-in-law to an Algerine Dey, and a man of position in the pirate
city, as he was to be Prime Minister to the man in the moon.

Sidi Cadua conducted her to the seraglio, where she was heartily
welcomed by the ladies, who expressed their delight at meeting her with
girlish glee. Ashweesha laughingly said that she was glad to see Agnes
had become a Mohammedan, on which Mrs Langley related what
circumstances had caused the change, and the Sultana listened to the
recital with tears of laughter running down her cheeks.

The English lady had naturally expected something gorgeous in the
palace, but she was not prepared for the lavish display of wealth that
met her eyes everywhere.

She found the Sultana and her si