agent's office, a number of
donkeys were waiting. Marjorie caught hold of Miss Craven, her cabin
companion, and said hastily:

"I'm not going this ride; I don't care for being jolted on a donkey,
with only a pack of straw for a saddle and a rope for a bridle. I must
get some sketches done. The Colquhouns are going to sketch. I can find
them if I want. Don't let anybody bother about me. I'll join you in time
to go back to the boat at five."

"Well, take care of yourself," said Miss Craven, "and don't wander about
alone, for it's a most heathenish-looking place. But you will be all
right with the Colquhouns."

"Oh, yes," answered Marjorie, turning away with a burning face. She
felt rather guilty, as though she had gone near to speaking an untruth,
although no actual falsehood had passed her lips. Nobody heeded her as
she slipped through the crowd of donkey boys and onlookers. Some offered
her their beasts, but she smiled and shook her head, and hurried back to
the main route through the larger arcades. Once there, she went
leisurely, eagerly looking into shop doors, watching the brass-beating,
the hand-loom weaving, and dashing off little pencil sketches of the
children squatting at their tasks, or walking to or fro as they
performed some winding operations for an older person seated upon the
floor.

Nobody molested her in any way or seemed to notice her much. Sometimes a
shopkeeper would offer her his wares in dumb show; but Marjorie had very
little money with her, and, knowing nothing of the value of these
things, was not to be tempted.

The sun poured down hot and strong, but there was shade to be had in
these arcaded streets; and though some of them were anything but clean
or sweet, Marjorie forgave everything for the sake of the beauty and
picturesqueness of the scene. She wandered here, there, and all over;
she found herself in the long, straggling market, and made hasty
sketches of the men and women chaffering at their stalls; of camels,
with their strange, sleepy, or vicious faces, padding softly along,
turning their heads this way and that. She watched the lading of the
beasts, and heard their curious grunts of anger or remonstrance when the
load exceeded their approval. Everything was full of attraction for her,
and she only waited till she had explored the place to set herself down
and make some coloured sketches.

She soon had a following of small boys and loiterers, all interested in
the doings of the