imagination to people the rooms with
the same splendor and fashion that fills Monte Carlo, and maybe, had
the war not come and the gambling license been granted, all this
barbaric splendor would have been perfumed with the scents of "attar of
roses" and "lily-of-the-valley" instead of "iodoform" and "carbolic."

Another hospital was in Luna Park, which had been built to cater to the
amusement of thousands of joy-seekers, but the only joy there now was
in relief from pain. It was fun to make the round of the wards, for
many beds were on the scenic railway, and you would visit one poor chap
in a high fever, lying amid painted ice and snow, while another nursed
his broken leg alongside a precipice that might well have caused it. I
walked in to see the sights one day, and passing through a cave almost
fell over a bed whereon was my own brother, whose whereabouts I had
been trying to discover for days. Such are the coincidences of life.

The streets of this town were spacious and very clean and were bordered
by fine buildings with granite and marble pillars and some fine masonry
lacework. Unfortunately, poor taste was often shown, with plaster
alongside the marble, and the stone used was too soft and already in
places was crumbling. In Egypt, where it rarely rains, the climate is
kind to the jerry-builder, and it's only when Jupiter Pluvius wants a
laugh and sends a regular tropical downpour that the buildings that
were a thing of beauty and a joy forever come to earth and are no more.
We ourselves were on one occasion victims of this god's fun. We were
told that it never rained, and our huts were built just to shelter us
from the sun, but at 2 A. M. the grim old weather-god turned on the
shower, and no doubt it amused him a good deal to hear our curses as we
tried to shelter ourselves and tucker beneath greatcoats and
water-proof sheeting. There was no chance of "getting in out of the
rain," for there was not a water-proof shelter for miles. Egypt is not
the only place, though, where the residents know least about their own
climate!

Heliopolis, anyway, is a skeleton of a town, for most of these
buildings were merely occupied in the front, by Greek and Indian
merchants who had anticipated our coming. In these shops anything
could be bought, from a microbe (which was sometimes given away) to an
elephant (nearly always a white one)! However, there were silks galore
and filagree-work of beauty, but the biggest trad