sh and French, many of them
works on agriculture, on building, on mining, on the sugar and cotton
industries in various parts of the world. There was a large
writing-table of lacquer-work, on which stood a movable electric lamp
without a shade, in the midst of a rummage of pamphlets and papers. Near
it were a coffee-table and two deep arm-chairs. From the ceiling, which
was divided into compartments painted in dark red and blue, hung a heavy
lamp by a chain of gilded silver. A stick of incense burned in a gilded
holder. The dining-room, on the other side of the screen, was fitted
with divans running round the walls, and contained a large table and a
number of chairs with curved backs. The table was covered with a long
and exquisitely embroidered Indian cloth, of which the prevailing colour
was a brilliant orange-red, that glowed and had a sheen which was almost
fiery. In the centre of this table stood a tawdry Japanese vase, worth,
perhaps, five or six shillings. A lovely bracket of carved wood fixed to
the wall held a cheap cuckoo-clock from Switzerland.

Mrs. Armine looked around in silence, with eyes that missed no detail.
The clock whirred, a minute door flew open, the cuckoo appeared, and the
two notes that are the cry of the English spring went thinly out to the
Nile. Then the cuckoo disappeared, and the little door shut sharply.

Mrs. Armine smiled.

"You bought that?" she asked.

"Yes, madame. Everything here was bought by me, and arranged according
to my poor judgment."

He opened the door, and led them into a long passage with a shining
parquetted floor.

"Here are the bedrooms, madame."

He pushed back two or three doors, showing beautiful little cabins,
evidently furnished from Paris, with bedsteads, mosquito-curtains, long
mirrors, small arm-chairs in white, and green and rose-colour; walls
painted ivory-white; and delicate, pretty, but rather frivolous,
curtains and portieres, with patterns of flowers tied up with ribands,
and flying and perching birds. All the toilet arrangements were perfect,
and each room had a recess in which was a large enamelled bath.

"That is my bedroom, madame," said Baroudi, pointing to a door which he
did not open. "It is the largest on the boat. And here is my room for
sitting alone. When I want to be disturbed by no one, when I want to
smoke the keef, to eat the hashish, or just to sit by myself and forget
my affairs, and dream quietly for a little, I shut myself in h