delivered a load of boxes there. Thus, on opening the door, I was not surprised to find the ten cases from Alexandria lying within, neatly labelled: 65 Ascending to the top floor, I mounted the rickety ladder and unbolted and opened the trap. A cautious glance to the right revealed the fact that little difficulty existed in passing from roof to roof; for in Egyptian houses these are flat and are used for various domestic purposes. I consulted my watch: the hour of the tryst was come. And even as I learned the fact, from my neighbor’s roof sounded the faint creaking of hinges ... and out into the moonlight stepped an odd figure—that of the lady of the lattice, dressed in a “European” blue serge costume which had obviously been purchased, ready made, in the bazaars! She wore high-heeled French shoes upon her pretty feet and her picturesque hair was concealed beneath a large Panama hat, from the brim of which floated one of those voluminous green veils dear to the heart of touring woman and so arranged as to hide her face. Only the gleam of her eyes and teeth was visible through the gauze. I assisted her to step across, wondering since she was thus attired, to what crazy expedition I was committed. “Please do not kiss me,” she whispered, speaking in moderately good English, “Fatimah is listening!” Such ingenuousness was rather alarming. “But,” I replied, “you have left the trap open.” “It is all right. Fatimah has locked the door of my room and will admit no one, because I have a headache and am sleeping!” Resting her hand confidingly in mine, she de66scended the ladder into the adjoining house, and, removing the veil from her face, looked up at me. “You will be kind to me, will you not?” she asked. I suppose a lengthy essay upon the mentality of Oriental womanhood would serve no purpose here, therefore I refrain from inserting it. Seated upon the chests in the room below, Mizmûna—for this was her name—confided her troubles with perturbing frankness. She had conceived a characteristically Eastern and sudden infatuation for my society; nor am I prepared to maintain that she would have remained
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