his coffin. And so, in Khalid's case, at least,
is Bohemia. For though the purse be not his own, he was paying dear,
and even in advance, in what is dearer than gold, for his experience.
"O, that the Devil did not take such interest in the marginal work of
our life! Why should we write it then, and for whom? And how will it
fare with us when, chapfallen in the end and mortified, we stand
before the great Task-Master like delinquent school boys with a blank
text in our hands?" (Thus Shakib, who has caught the moralising evil
from his Master.) And that we must stand, and fall, for thus standing,
he is quite certain. At least, Khalid is. For he would not return to
the Text to make up for the blank pages therein, if he were not.

"When he returned from his last sojourn in Bohemia," writes our
Scribe, "Khalid was pitiful to behold. Even Sindbad, had he seen him,
would have been struck with wonder. The tears rushed to my eyes when
we embraced; for instead of Khalid I had in my arms a phantom. And I
could not but repeat the lines of Al-Mutanabbi,

"So phantom-like I am, and though so near,
If I spoke not, thou wouldst not know I'm here."

""No more voyages, I trust, O thou Sindbad." And he replied, "Yes, one
more; but to our dear native land this time." In fact, I, too, was
beginning to suffer from nostalgia, and was much desirous of returning
home." But Shakib is in such a business tangle that he could not
extricate himself in a day. So, they tarry another year in New York,
the one meanwhile unravelling his affairs, settling with his creditors
and collecting what few debts he had, the other brooding over the few
blank pages in his Text.

One day he receives a letter from a fellow traveller, a distinguished
citizen of Tammany Land, whom he had met and befriended in Bohemia,
relating to an enterprise of great pith and moment. It was election
time, we learn, and the high post of political canvasser of the Syrian
District was offered to Khalid for a consideration of--but the letter
which Shakib happily preserved, we give in full.

"Dear Khalid:

"I have succeeded in getting Mr. O'Donohue to appoint you a
canvasser of the Syrian District. You must stir yourself,
therefore, and try to do some good work, among the Syrian
voters, for Democracy's Candidate this campaign. Here is a
chance which, with a little hustling on your part, will
materialise. And I see no reason why you should not try to cash
you