at stool and stared
at the blank canvas before him. He had felt the role of artist would
be an excellent screen for his loitering, but he had done no
painting for a little matter of twenty years, not since he was a
tiny lad, flat upon his stomach in his home library, industriously
tinting the robes and beards of Bible characters and the backgrounds
of the Holy Land--this work of art being one of the few permitted
diversions of the family Sabbath. Now he reflected that the scenes
for his brush were decidedly similar.

With humorous interest he fell to work, scaling off the palace on
his left, blocking off the cemetery ahead, and trying to draw a palm
without emphasizing the thought of a feather duster. His engineering
training made him critical of his lines and outlines, but when it
came to the introduction of color he had the sensation of a
shipwrecked mariner afloat upon uncharted seas.

The color that his eyes perceived was not the color which his
stubborn memory persisted in reminding him was the actual hue of the
events, and the color that he produced upon canvas was no kin to any
of them. But it sufficed for an excuse, and he worked away,
whistling cheerily, warily observant of the dark and silent facade
of the old palace and alertly interested in the little groups his
occupation transiently attracted. But these little groups were all
of passers-by, shawl-venders, package-deliverers, beggars, veiled
desert women with children astride their shoulders, and the live
hens they were selling beneath their mantles, and these groups
dissolved and drew away from him without his being able to attract
any observation from the palace.

But at least, he thought doggedly, any girl behind those latticed
windows up there could see him in the street, and if Arlee were
there she would understand his presence and plan to get word down
to him. But he began to feel extraordinarily foolish.

At length his patience was rewarded. The small door opened and the
stalwart doorkeeper, in blue robes and yellow English shoes, marched
pompously out to him and ordered him to be off.

Haughtily Billy responded that this was permitted, and displayed a
self-prepared document, gorgeous with red seals, which made the man
scowl, mutter, and shake his head and retire surlily to his door,
and finding a black-veiled girl peering out of it at Billy, he
thrust her violently within. But Billy had caught her eyes and tried
to look all the significance i