n I went with my mother to the Sweet Waters. 'Amina,' she
said, 'there is your lord, in the Frankish coat--with the white horse.'"

"Have you not talked to him?"

"What should I do that for?"

"Aunt Bessie used to like to talk to nobody but Uncle Frank before they
were married."

"I shall talk enough when I am married. I shall make him give me plenty
of sweetmeats, and a carriage with two handsome bullocks, and the
biggest Nubian black slave in the market to drive me to Sweet Waters, in
a thin blue veil, with all my jewels on. Father says that Selim Bey will
give me everything, and a Frank governess. What is a governess? Is it
anything like the little gold case you have round your neck?"

"My locket with Mamma's hair? Oh, no, no," said Lucy, laughing; "a
governess is a lady to teach you."

"I don't want to learn any more," said Amina, much disgusted; "I shall
tell him I can make a pillau, and dry sweetmeats, and roll rose-leaves.
What should I learn for?"

"Should you not like to read and write?"

"Teaching is only meant for men. They have got to read the Koran, but it
is all ugly letters; I won't learn to read."

"You don't know how nice it is to read stories, and all about different
countries. Ah! I wish I was in the schoolroom, at home, and I would show
you how pleasant it is."

And Lucy seemed to have her wish all at once, for she and Amina stood in
her own schoolroom, but with no one else there. The first thing Amina
did was to scream, "Oh, what shocking windows! even men can see in; shut
them up." She rolled herself up in her veil, and Lucy could only satisfy
her by pulling down all the blinds, after which she ventured to look
about a little. "What have you to sit on?" she asked, with great
disgust.

"Chairs and stools," said Lucy, laughing and showing them.

"These little tables with four legs! How can you sit on them?"

Lucy sat down and showed her. "That is not sitting," she said, and tried
to curl herself up cross-legged; "I can't dangle down my legs."

"Our governess always makes us write out a tense of a French verb if
she sees us sitting with our legs crossed," said Lucy, laughing with
much amusement at Amina's attempts to wriggle herself up on the stool
whence she nearly fell.

"Ah, I will never have a governess!" cried Amina. "I will cry, and cry,
and give Selim Bey no rest till he promises to let me alone. What a
dreadful place this is! Where can you sleep?"

"In bed, to be sure" said