use.

"You'll be getting tired of circus and would rather have museum for a
change, I expect," he said. "I'll show you all my curios, and then you
shall each choose something for me to tell you about."

The study was a delightful little room, with a French window opening
into the garden. One side was quite filled by a large Japanese cabinet
with many sliding cupboards and drawers. Linda certainly had not
exaggerated the number of wonderful things which it contained. There
were treasures from Egypt, from Palestine, from India, from China, and
from Japan. Wherever the doctor had travelled he seemed to have picked
up some object of interest, and to examine the various drawers was
like taking a peep into far countries. He allowed Linda and Sylvia to
dress themselves up in some of the gorgeous silk scarves and sashes,
to slip on the Japanese kimonos, and put their feet into the Turkish
slippers.

"I think I like the Indian things best; they smell the nicest," said
Linda, snuffing at a sandalwood box, and trying the effect of some
filagree ornaments on her own hair and Sylvia's. "How grand the women
must look in these! No, I shouldn't like to wear the nose ring, thank
you, nor the earrings, though I'd love the bangles. They must have
tiny wrists. I can only just push these over my hands. Aren't they
meant for a child?"

"No," replied Dr. Severn, "they are really for a grown-up woman, but
the people of all Eastern nations have very small hands compared with
us Westerns. If you like the scent of sandalwood, what do you think
of this? It comes from the vale of Kashmir." He drew the stopper from
a bottle of attar of roses as he spoke.

The odour was so deliciously sweet and overpowering that it filled the
whole room.

"It's the true stuff," said the doctor, "not the wretched imitation
which is often sold over here. Now if I put a drop on each of your
pocket handkerchiefs it will scent all your clothes for a
twelve-month. Where are they?"

"It's lucky they're clean ones," said Sylvia, rummaging in her pocket.
"I shall keep mine in my drawer after this, and not send it to the
wash, ever. It's lovelier even than lavender water or eau de Cologne."

"I believe it takes a thousand roses to make one drop of this," said
Dr. Severn, "so you have a great deal of concentrated sweetness there.
This round box comes from Damascus, and I don't think it's quite empty
yet. If you have smelled true attar you ought also to taste genuine