rd to--to
this question, as being the natural and proper opinion of the original
and civilised young man."

"I repeat that I do not claim to be very civilised, or very
young--certainly not to be very original, and my renunciation of all
these qualifications is my excuse for the confirmed bachelorhood to
which I adhere. Many Mohammedans are young and original; some of them
are civilised, as you see, and all of them are married. 'There, is no
God but God, Muhammad is his prophet, and if you refuse to marry you are
not respectable,' is their full creed."

Isaacs frowned at my profanity, but I continued--"I do not mean to say
anything disrespectful to a creed so noble and social. I think you have
small chance of converting Mr. Isaacs."

"I would not attempt it," she said, laying down her work in her lap, and
looking at me for a moment. "But since you speak of creeds, to what
confession do you yourself belong, if I may ask?"

"I am a Roman Catholic," I answered; adding presently--"Really, though,
I do not see how my belief in the papal infallibility affects my opinion
of Mohammedan marriages."

"And what _do_ you think of them?" she inquired, resuming her work and
applying herself thereto with great attention.

"I think that, though justified in principle by the ordinary
circumstances of Eastern life, there are cases in which the system acts
very badly. I think that young men are often led by sheer force of
example into marrying several wives before they have sufficiently
reflected on the importance of what they are doing. I think that both
marriage and divorce are too easily managed in consideration of their
importance to a man's life, and I am convinced that no civilised man of
Western education, if he were to adopt Islam, would take advantage of
his change of faith to marry four wives. It is a case of theory _versus_
practice, which I will not attempt to explain. It may often be good in
logic, but it seems to me it is very often bad in real life."

"Yes," said Isaacs; "there are cases----" He stopped, and Miss
Westonhaugh, who had been very busy over her work, looked quietly up,
only to find that he was profoundly interested in the horses cropping
the short grass, as far as the saice would let them stretch their necks,
on the other side of the lawn.

"I confess," said Miss Westonhaugh, "that my ideas about Mohammedans are
chiefly the result of reading the Arabian Nights, ever so long ago. It
seems to me that the