nd of the opposite house was flung back. Xantippe leaned
out of the window and saw them.

VI--BABY AND JEW

When the Penny-farthing Shop began to fill Gregorio disappeared quietly
by the back door. He muttered a half-unintelligible answer to the men
who were playing cards in the dim parlour through which he had to pass,
who called to him to join them. Gaining the street, he wandered along
till he reached the bazaars, intending to waste an hour or two until
Xantippe should have left the house. Then he determined to go back and
see the boy in whom all his hopes and ambitions were centered, who was
the unconscious cause of his villainy and degradation.

There was a large crowd in the bazaars, for a Moolid was being
celebrated. Jugglers, snake-charmers, mountebanks, gipsies, and
dancing-girls attracted hundreds of spectators.

The old men sat in the shadows of their stalls, smoking and drinking
coffee. They smiled gravely at the younger people, who jostled one
another good-humouredly, laughing, singing, quarrelling like children.
Across the roadway hung lamps of coloured glass and tiny red flags
stamped with a white crescent and a star. Torches blazed at intervals,
casting a flickering glow on the excited faces of the crowd.

Gregorio watched without much interest. He had seen a great many
fantasias since he came to Egypt, and they were no longer a novelty to
him. He was annoyed that a race of people whom he despised should be so
merry when he himself had so many troubles to worry him. He would have
liked to go into one of the booths where the girls danced, but he had no
money, and he cursed at his stupidity in not asking the Marx woman for
some. He no longer felt ashamed of himself, for he argued that he was
the victim of circumstances. Still he wished Xantippe had not looked out
of the window, though of course he could easily explain things to her.
And Xantippe was really so angry the night before, explanations were
better postponed for a time. "After all," he thought, "it really does
not much matter. Once we get over our present difficulties we shall
forget all we have gone through." This comfortable reflection had been
doing duty pretty often the last day or two, and though Gregorio did not
believe it a bit, he always felt it was a satisfactory conclusion, and
one to be encouraged.

Meanwhile he would not meet Xantippe. That was a point upon which he had
definitely made up his mind. As he strolled through th