," I cried in my wrath, "to sign herself
'Lola'! As if I ever called her, or could ever be in a position to call
her 'Lola'! I should like to know," I exclaimed, hurling the "Indicateur
des Chemins de Fer" on to the seat of a summer-house, built after the
manner of a little Greek temple, "I should like to know what the deuce
she means by it!"

"Hallo! Hallo! What the devil's the matter?" cried a voice; and I
found I had disturbed from his slumbers an unnoticed Colonel of British
Cavalry.

"A thousand pardons!" said I. "I thought I was alone, and gave vent to
the feelings of the moment."

Colonel Bunnion stretched himself and joined me.

"That's the worst of this place," he said. "It's so liverish. One lolls
about and sleeps all day long, and one's liver gets like a Strasburg
goose's and plays Old Harry with one's temper. Why one should come here
when there are pheasants to be shot in England, I don't know."

"Neither your liver nor your temper seem to be much affected, Colonel,"
said I, "for you've been violently awakened from a sweet sleep and are
in a most amiable frame of mind."

He laughed, suggested exercise, the Briton's panacea for all ills, and
took me for a walk. When we returned at dusk, and after I had had tea
before the fire (for December evenings in Algiers are chilly) in one of
the pretty Moorish alcoves of the lounge, my good humour was restored. I
viewed our pursuit of Captain Vauvenarde in its right aspect--that of
a veritable Snark-Hunt of which I was the Bellman--and the name "Lola"
curled itself round my heart with the same grateful sensation of comfort
as the warm China tea. After all, it was only as Lola that I thought
of her. The name fitted her personality, which Brandt did not. Out
of "Brandt" I defy you to get any curvilinear suggestion. I reflected
dreamily that it would be pleasant to walk with her among the roses in
the sunshine and to drink tea with her in dusky Moorish alcoves. I also
thought, with an enjoyable spice of malice, of what the retired Colonels
and elderly maiden ladies would have to say about Lola when she arrived.
They should have a gorgeous time.

So light-hearted did I become that, the next evening, while I was
dressing for dinner, I did not frown when the chasseur brought me up the
huge trilingual visiting-card of Professor Anastasius Papadopoulos.

"Show the gentleman up," said I.

Rogers handed me my black tie and began to gather together discarded
garments so