Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/233

 great ancestor. Then we are conducted to the private apartments of the Marabout. Through an interpreter we are bidden to remain for luncheon. We accept the invitation.

"HOW ARE YOU?"

Words fail to tell of our surprise on entering the boudoir of our holy host. We had pictured to ourselves a sanctum sanctorum, containing possibly a prayer-mat and a copy of the Koran. We find instead a cozy den filled with the creations of the instalment-plan furniture dealer. Let me recite a catalogue of these incongruities. There was one tall clock, two cuckoo clocks, and five other clocks, each marking a different hour; there was a looking-glass, a settee, and a table,—all from the Bon Marché of Paris; there were—Oh, shade of Mohammed! photographic likenesses of living forms, selected from the collections in the windows of the Rue de Rivoli; there was a kerosene lamp like those which sometimes hang above the table d'hôte in five-franc-per-day pensions; and last and greatest wonder of them all, a lonely gas-fixture, complete with its wall-bracket, burner, and globe. Our host proudly takes it down to show it to us, for it is merely hung upon a hook. There are no