nother door:
there is another patio, with its walls covered with ivy, and a number of
niches holding little statues, busts, and urns. I look in at a third
door: here is another patio, with its walls worked in mosaics, a palm in
the centre, and a mass of flowers all around. I stop at a fourth door:
after the patio there is another vestibule, after this a second patio,
in which one sees other statues, columns, and fountains. All these rooms
and gardens are so neat and clean that one could pass his hand over the
walls and on the ground without leaving a trace; and they are fresh,
odorous, and lighted by an uncertain light, which increases their beauty
and mysterious appearance.

On I go at random from street to street. As I walk, my curiosity
increases and I quicken my pace. It seems impossible that a whole city
can be like this; I am afraid of stumbling across some house or coming
into some street that will remind me of other cities, and disturb my
beautiful dream. But no, the dream lasts; for everything is small,
lovely, and mysterious. At every hundred steps I reach a deserted
square, in which I stop and hold my breath; from time to time there
appears a cross-road, and not a living soul is to be seen; everything is
white, the windows closed, and silence reigns on all sides. At each door
there is a new spectacle; there are arches, columns, flowers, jets of
water, and palms; a marvelous variety of design, tints, light, and
perfume; here the odor of roses, there of oranges, farther on of pinks;
and with this perfume a whiff of fresh air, and with the air a subdued
sound of women's voices, the rustling of leaves, and the singing of
birds. It is a sweet and varied harmony, that without disturbing the
silence of the streets, soothes the ear like the echo of distant music.
Ah! it is not a dream! Madrid, Italy, Europe, are indeed far away! Here
one lives another life, and breathes the air of a different world,--for
I am in the East.

THE LAND OF PLUCK

From 'Holland and Its People'

Whoever looks for the first time at a large map of Holland wonders that
a country so constituted can continue to exist. At the first glance it
is difficult to see whether land or water predominates, or whether
Holland belongs most to the continent or to the sea. Those broken and
compressed coasts; those deep bays; those great rivers that, losing the
aspect of rivers, seem bringing new seas to the sea; that sea which,
changing itself into rive