from one so
powerful; but you have every cause to be elated. He is now your
friend.'

'I shall never see him in my life again most likely!' I objected.

'Nay, that you cannot tell,' replied my mentor suavely. 'To be
acquainted with a person in authority is always well.'

CHAPTER XXIII

CONCERNING BRIBES

'Why did you want those four mejidis?' I inquired severely.

Suleyman shrugged up his shoulders and replied:

'I had to pay the proper fees, since you yourself showed not a sign of
doing so, to save our carefully established honour and good name.'

'You don't mean that you gave them to the Caimmacam?'

'Allah forbid! Consider, O beloved, my position in this matter. To put
it in the form of parables: Suppose a king and his vizier should pay a
visit to another king and his vizier. If there were presents to be
made, I ask you, would not those intended for the king be offered
personally by the king, and those for the vizier by the vizier? It
will be obvious to your Honour, upon slight reflection, that if, in
our adventure of this morning, a present to the Governor was
necessary or desirable, you personally, and no other creature, should
have made it.'

'Merciful Allah!' I exclaimed. 'He would have knocked me down.'

'He would have done nothing of the kind, being completely civilised.
He would merely have pushed back your hand with an indulgent smile,
pressing it tenderly, as who should say: "Thou art a child in these
things, and dost not know our ways, being a stranger." Yet,
undoubtedly, upon the whole, your offer of a gift, however small,
would have confirmed the good opinion which he formed at sight of you.

'But let that pass! Out of the four mejidis which you gave me so
reluctantly (since you ask for an account) I presented one to the
usher, and three to his Excellency's private secretary, in your name.
And I have procured it of the secretary's kindness that he will urge
his lord to take some measures to protect that ancient malefactor, the
Sheykh Yusuf.'

'If I had tipped the Governor, as you suggest that I ought to have
done,' I interrupted vehemently, 'do you mean to say he would have
taken measures to protect Sheykh Yusuf?'

'Nay, I say not that; but he would at least have had complete
conviction that your Honour takes a lively interest in that old
churl--a person in himself unpleasant and unworthy of a single thought
from any thinking or right-minded individual. Thus, even though he
scor