l, it has
grown past bearing! They will no longer make a priest of our Iskender;
that honour is for the son of Costantin;--low, cunning devil! Iskender
may now, as a favour, sweep their house. Here, in this very room, on
yonder chair, the abandoned Carulin sat and told me the fine news--to
me, the mainstay of the Mission, who have not missed a prayer-meeting
for twenty years----"

"Allah is merciful!" ejaculated the dragoman. Though himself a staunch
supporter of the Holy Orthodox Church, he had a regard for the
Protestant, as the faith of the wealthy English. He had looked forward
to the welcoming smile of English travellers when he told them that his
nephew was a Protestant clergyman. This rejection of Iskender was
therefore a disappointment to him. Nevertheless, since God so willed
it, there were other occupations that the boy could follow. More
insupportable by far was the screaming fury of this woman, which, he
feared, might lead her to disgrace her relatives by overt rudeness
towards the English missionaries. He said:

"The flush of anger well becomes thee. By Allah, it enriches thy dark
beauty, like the bloom on purple grapes."

The mother of Iskender started and blushed hotly, struck in the face by
such audacious flattery. She exclaimed:

"Be silent, imbecile! Are such words for the ear of one like me? Keep
thy fine phrases for the tourist ladies, who know the fashion, and can
answer thee."

"Nay, the daughters of our land nowadays rival the foreign ladies in
wit and fashion," said Abdullah gravely, pursuing his advantage. "I
myself assisted at a wedding in Beyrut where the ladies talked and
jested freely with the gentlemen, with roars of laughter in the
Frankish manner. Ah, that was a sight! A hundred carriages, all
festively bedecked, conveyed the guests to church, with cracking of
whips and shoutings to clear a way. All the women were arrayed in
splendid dresses brought from Fransa, and grand big hats with ostrich
plumes and flying ribbons. A sight, I tell thee, equal to anything to
be seen in Baris or Lundra."

"Thou seest such things!" The mother of Iskender pouted, envious.
"Here there is never anything to call a show. Even when Daud el Barudi
married, there were no fine dresses. Every woman present wore the
head-veil. I fain would try a Frankish hat myself; but the ladies will
not let me--curse their father!"

"They fear to be outshone," put in Abdullah, and continued quickl