pronounced Arabian type, entered. He wore a chauffeur's livery of
dark blue; and Soames recognized him for the man who had driven the car.

"Said," said Ho-Pin very deliberately, turning to face the new arrival,
"ahu hina--Lucas Effendi--Mr. Lucas. Waddi el--shenta ila beta oda.
Fehimt?"

Said bowed his head.

"Fahim, effendi," he muttered rapidly.

"Ma fihsh."...

Again Said bowed his head, then, glancing at Soames:--

"Ta'ala wayyaya!" he said.

Soames, looking helplessly at Gianapolis--who merely pointed to the
door--followed Said from the room.

He was conducted along a wide passage, thickly carpeted and having its
walls covered with a kind of matting kept in place by strips of bamboo.
Its roof was similarly concealed. A door near to the end, and on the
right, proved to open into a square room quite simply furnished in the
manner of a bed-sitting room. A little bathroom opened out of it in one
corner. The walls were distempered white, and there was no window.
Light was furnished by an electric lamp, hanging from the center of the
ceiling.

Soames, glancing at his bag, which Said had just placed beside the
white-enameled bedstead, turned to his impassive guide.

"This is a funny go!" he began, with forced geniality. "Am I to live
here?"

"Ma'lesh!" muttered Said--"ma'lesh!"

He indicated, by gestures, that Soames should remove his collar; he was
markedly unemotional. He crossed to the bathroom, and could be heard
filling the hand-basin with water.

"Kursi!" he called from within.

Soames, seriously doubting his own sanity, and so obsessed with a sense
of the unreal that his senses were benumbed, began to take off his
collar; he could not feel the contact of his fingers with his neck in
the act. Collarless, he entered the little bathroom....

"Kursi!" repeated Said; then: "Ah! ana nesit! ma'lesh!"

Said--whilst Soames, docile in his stupor, watched him--went back,
picked up the solitary cane chair which the apartment boasted, and
brought it into the bathroom. Soames perceived that he was to be treated
to something in the nature of a shampoo; for Said had ranged a number
of bottles, a cake of soap, and several towels, along a shelf over the
bath.

In a curious state of passivity, Soames submitted to the operation. His
hair was vigorously toweled, then fanned in the most approved fashion;
but this was no more than the beginning of the operation. As he leaned
back in the chair:

"Am I dreaming?"