made it seem
certain that one or other must be hurled to the bottom of the hill. A
lady inside our carriage burst into a flood of tears, and I believe her
companions were all clinging to one another in terror. As for me, I was
on the box, and I never passed a more exciting ten minutes. We were
told afterwards that we had had the best driver in Jerusalem, but I
never engaged his services again.

"That same night in the hotel I was introduced to a dragoman, whom we
engaged to take us about. I am sure you will like to hear about Salim,
for, apart from himself, he had a great claim to attention, for he had
been Gordon's dragoman years ago when he was in Egypt. Yes! I knew
that would interest you, and you would have loved Salim for his own sake
too. He had a gentle, sad face, with the beautiful dark eyes of the
Eastern, and he spoke English remarkably well. He was unmarried, and
lived with his mother and a married brother. Sixteen years he and his
sister-in-law had lived in the same house, but he had never seen her
face. He had been unlucky in money matters, but accepted his poverty
with the placid acquiescence of the Oriental. I remember one day when
he told me of a piece of good fortune which had befallen a fellow-
dragoman, and I said that I hoped he might be similarly fortunate. He
bowed his head with quiet dignity, and waved a brown hand in the air.
`That is with God, sahib--that is with God!' I used to question him
about Gordon, and he loved to talk of him. `He was a good man, sahib,
better than any bishop. When we were camping in the desert he was up
every morning before it was light, kneeling to pray before his tent, and
his heart was so great that he could not bear to see anyone in trouble.
I must always keep with me a bag with small moneys, and he would not
wait to be asked. Everyone who needed must be helped. When he went
away he gave me his two best horses, but my heart was sore. He was a
great chief--a great chief; but I heard afterwards that when he came to
die he was quite poor--the same as Christ!'"

Hilliard told a story well, and now, as he repeated the words, his voice
softened into the deep cadence of the Eastern tones, in which they had
first been said; his hand waved and his eye kindled with emotion.

Esmeralda looked at him, and her heart gave a throb of admiration. The
manner in which he had spoken was unmistakably reverent, and if young
men only knew it, there is nothing which a