o'clock in the evening her knock preceded preparations for
dinner, while she munched something or hummed a tune meanwhile. Seas of
thin soup invariably preceded a dish of shapeless masses of "soup-meat,"
garnished with boiled peas. The third course consisted of chicken or
partridge: on less happy occasions foreign and "shudderous" dishes
appeared; a peculiar jelly shell-fish was the lowest ebb--that and pork
we resented. Last of all, a tall glass fruit-dish would arrive, the
standard sweet--_flan_ (caramel pudding). Then a long pause. Finally,
Amanda's step, with a great plate of hot toast and a tall tin coffee-pot:
black coffee was the best part of the meal.

A day or two after settling into the fonda we were asked to our first
entertainment in a Moorish house. Hadj Mukhtar Hilalli wanted Mr. Bewicke
and ourselves to "tea" with him.

As in the case of "the Duke's" house, so here, all the womenkind were
hidden away on account of the Consul. Mohammedans are jealous and
suspicious of their wives and daughters to a degree, and strongly resent,
if not prevent, an Englishman's going up on to the flat roof, lest he
have a view of fair occupants beyond or below. Nevertheless, the wives
always contrive to peep out of some loophole and see all there is to be
seen.

Hadj Mukhtar Hilalli received us all three alone, as a matter of course,
and led us upstairs to his best room. Like many others among the better
class of Moors, our host had a shop and himself sold groceries. At the
same time his sister is the wife of one of the Ministers; and as there is
no respect of persons in Morocco, Hadj Mukhtar Hilalli might be called
upon himself any day to fill a high official position, and be obliged to
go, raising money, if he had not wherewithal to support the post, which,
if a lucrative one, would soon repay the outlay.

Trade at Tetuan, and apparently everywhere else over Morocco, is not what
it once was: the old flintlocks, inlaid with silver wire and lumps of
pink coral, are unknown since the last gun-maker died; snuff-nuts, even
slippers, do but a small business. Living is more expensive than it was:
it cost Hadj Mukhtar three shillings a day to feed himself and the whole
household, he said.

The room into which we went--our host leaving his yellow slippers in the
doorway, and motioning us all to sit down on the divans round the
walls--was hung with a silk dado, tiled in mosaic, and overlooked a
good-sized patio with a running fo