y, as the saying goes. And, unless
some deputation from the Druze community appeals to me, I should be
ill-advised to interfere in its affairs. Our way of government is not
identical with that which is pursued with such conspicuous success in
highly civilised and settled countries like your own. We leave the
various communities and tribes alone to settle their internal
differences. It is only where tribe wars on tribe, religion on
religion, or their quarrels stop the traffic on the Sultan's highway
that we intervene. What would you have, mon ami? We are here in Asia!'

With these words, and a smile of quite ineffable indulgence for my
young illusions, his Excellency bowed me out.

In the ante-room Suleyman drew close to my left ear and whispered
sharply:

'Give me four mejidis.'

'Whatever for?' I asked in deep amazement.

'That I will tell you afterwards. The need is instant.'

I produced the four mejidis from a trouser-pocket, and, receiving
them, he went back to the door by which the usher stood, and whispered
to the man, who went inside a moment and came back with the private
secretary of the Caimmacam. The compliments which passed between them
seemed to me interminable.

I paced the pavement of the waiting-room, the only figure in the crowd
whose attitude bespoke impatience. The others sat or squatted round
the walls in perfect resignation, some of them smoking, others
munching nuts of various kinds, of which the shells began to hide the
floor adjacent to them. A few of the suppliants had even had the
forethought to bring with them bags full of provisions, as if
anticipating that their time of waiting might endure for several days.

At last, when I was growing really angry with him, Suleyman returned
and told me:

'All is well, and we can now be going, if your Honour pleases.'

'I do please,' I rejoined indignantly. 'Why have you kept me waiting
all this while? I never wished to come at all into this place, and
Allah knows that we have done no good by coming. We have spoilt a
morning which we might have spent upon the road.'

'Allah, Allah!' sighed Suleyman long-sufferingly. 'Your Honour is
extremely hard to please. Did not his Excellency talk to you
exclusively, with every sign of the most lively pleasure for quite
half an hour; whereas he scarcely deigned to throw a word to me,
although I wooed his ear with language calculated to seduce the mind
of kings? I have some cause to be dejected at neglect