_Eva's Affianced Bridegroom_

WE OUGHT to have met at Jerusalem,' said Tancred to Besso, on whose
right hand he was seated, 'but I am happy to thank you for all
your kindness, even at Damascus.' 'My daughter tells me you are not
uninterested in our people, which is the reason I ventured to ask you
here.'

'I cannot comprehend how a Christian can be uninterested in a people who
have handed down to him immortal truths.'

'All the world is not as sensible of the obligation as yourself, noble
traveller.'

'But who are the world? Do you mean the inhabitants of Europe, which is
a forest not yet cleared; or the inhabitants of Asia, which is a ruin
about to tumble?'

'The railroads will clear the forest,' said Besso. 'And what is to
become of the ruin?' asked Tancred.

'God will not forget His land.' 'That is the truth; the government of
this globe must be divine, and the impulse can only come from Asia.'

'If your government only understood the Eastern question!' said Mr.
Consul-General Laurella, pricking up his ears at some half phrase that
he had caught, and addressing Tancred across the table. 'It is more
simple than you imagine, and before you return to England to take
your seat in your Parliament, I should be very happy to have some
conversation with you.

I think I could tell you some things----' and he gave a glance of
diplomatic mystery. Tancred bowed.

'For my part,' said Hillel Besso, shrugging his shoulders, and speaking
in an airy tone, 'it seems to me that your Eastern question is a great
imbroglio that only exists in the cabinets of diplomatists. Why should
there be any Eastern question? All is very well as it is. At least we
might be worse: I think we might be worse.'

'I am so happy to find myself once more among you,' whispered Fakredeen
to his neighbour, Madame Mourad Farhi. 'This is my real home.'

'All here must be happy and honoured to see you, too, noble Emir.'

'And the good Signor Mourad: I am afraid I am not a favourite of his?'
pursued Fakredeen, meditating a loan.

'I never heard my husband speak of you, noble Emir, but with the
greatest consideration.'

'There is no man I respect so much,' said Fakredeen; 'no one in whom I
have such a thorough confidence. Excepting our dear host, who is really
my father, there is no one on whose judgment I would so implicitly rely.
Tell him all that, my dear Madame Mourad, for I wish him to respect me.'

'I admire his hair so much,' whisper