istrict, and then left Suleyman to tell the story
of Sheykh Yusuf and his neighbours and the battle we had witnessed in
the olive grove before his house.

Suleyman exhausted all his powers of language and of wit, making a
veritable poem of the episode. The Governor did not appear profoundly
interested.

'Sheykh Yusuf! Who is he?' he asked at the conclusion of the tale.

I explained that the Sheykh Yusuf was a landowner, whose acquaintance
we had made through my desire to buy some property.

'Your Honour thinks of settling here among us?' cried his Excellency,
with sudden zest, appearing quite enraptured with the notion. He
asked then if the French tongue was intelligible to me, and, hearing
that it was, talked long in French about my project, which seemed to
please him greatly. He said that it would be a blessing for his
district to have a highly civilised, enlightened being like myself
established in it as the sun and centre of improvement; and what a
comfort it would be to him particularly to have an educated man at
hand to talk to! He hoped that, when I had set up my model farm--for a
model it would be, in every way, he felt quite sure of that, from my
appearance and my conversation--I would not limit my attention solely
to the work of agriculture, but would go on to improve the native
breeds of sheep and oxen. He heard that splendid strains of both were
found in England. He wished me to import a lot of English bulls and
rams, assuring me of the assistance of the Government in all that I
might do in that direction, since the Sultan ('His Imperial Majesty'
he called him always) took the greatest interest in such experiments.

All this was very far from my original design, which was to lead as
far as possible a quiet life. But I promised to give thought to all
his Excellency's counsels.

He made me smoke two cigarettes and drink a cup of coffee which his
secretary had prepared upon a brazier in a corner of the room; and
then, with a sweet smile and deprecating gestures of the hands, he
begged me to excuse him if he closed the interview. It was a grief to
him to let me go, but he was very busy.

I rose at once, and so did Suleyman.

'But what of the Sheykh Yusuf?' I exclaimed, reminding him.

'Ah, to be sure!' rejoined the Governor with a slight frown. 'Of what
religion is he?'

'I suppose a Druze.'

'And the people who attacked him so unmercifully?'

'Are Druzes too.'

'Ah, then, it is all in the famil