dings of his unpaid henchman.

As they proceeded inland, on the border of each local jurisdiction the
escort was changed with an exhibition of "powder-play," the old one
retiring as the new one advanced with the governor at its head. Thus
they journeyed for about a week, till they reached the crumbling walls
of palm-begirt Marrakesh.

The official _personnel_ of the embassy consisted of the Minister
and his secretary Nikolaki Glymenopoulos, with Ayush ben Lezra, the
interpreter. The secretary was a self-confident dandy with a head like
a pumpkin and a scrawl like the footprints of a wandering hen; reputed
a judge of ladies and horse-flesh; supercilious, condescending to
inferiors, and the plague of his tailor. The consul, Paolo Komnenos, a
man of middle age with a kindly heart, yet without force of character
to withstand the evils around him, had been left in Tangier as _Charge
d'Affaires_, to the great satisfaction of his wife and family, who
considered themselves of the _creme de la creme_ of Tangier society,
such as it was, because, however much the wife of the Minister
despised the bumptiousness of Madame Komnenos, she could not omit her
from her invitations, unless of the most private nature, on account
of her husband's official position. Now, as Madame Mavrogordato
accompanied her husband with her little son and a lady friend, the
consul's wife reigned supreme.

Then there were the official _attaches_ for the occasion, the
representative of the army, a colonel of Roman nose, and eyes which
required but one glass between them, a man to whom death would have
been preferable to going one morning unshaved, or to failing one jot
in military etiquette; and the representative of the navy, in cocked
hat and gold-striped pantaloons, who found it more difficult to avoid
tripping over his sword than most landsmen do to keep from stumbling
over coils of rope on ship-board; beyond his costume there was little
of note about him; his genial character made it easy to say "Ay, ay,"
to any one, but the yarns he could spin round the camp-fire made him
a general favourite. The least consequential of the party was the
doctor, an army man of honest parts, who wished well to all the world.
Undoubtedly he was the hardest worked of the lot, for no one else did
anything but enjoy himself.

Finally there were the "officious" _attaches_. Every dabbler in
politics abroad knows the fine distinctions between "official" and
"officious" acti