costume--which
is entirely in keeping with the--ah--strictly Oriental character of your
interior."

"_I_ feel dreadfully out of keeping!" said Sylvia, "for there's nothing
in the least Oriental about _me_--unless it's my scarab--and he's I
don't know how many centuries behind the time, poor dear!"

"If you said 'thousands of years,' my dear," corrected the Professor,
"you would be more accurate. That scarab was taken out of a tomb of the
thirteenth dynasty."

"Well, I'm sure he'd rather be where he is," said Sylvia, and Ventimore
entirely agreed with her. "Horace, I _must_ look at everything. How
clever and original of you to transform an ordinary London house into
this!"

"Oh, well, you see," explained Horace, "it--it wasn't exactly done by
me."

"Whoever did it," said the Professor, "must have devoted considerable
study to Eastern art and architecture. May I ask the name of the firm
who executed the alterations?"

"I really couldn't tell you, sir," answered Horace, who was beginning
to understand how very bad a _mauvais quart d'heure_ can be.

"You can't tell me!" exclaimed the Professor. "You order these
extensive, and _I_ should say expensive, decorations, and you don't know
the firm you selected to carry them out!"

"Of course I _know_," said Horace, "only I don't happen to remember at
this moment. Let me see, now. Was it Liberty? No, I'm almost certain it
wasn't Liberty. It might have been Maple, but I'm not sure. Whoever did
do it, they were marvellously cheap."

"I am glad to hear it," said the Professor, in his most unpleasant tone.
"Where is your dining-room?"

"Why, I rather think," said Horace, helplessly, as he saw a train of
attendants laying a round cloth on the floor, "I rather think _this_ is
the dining-room."

"You appear to be in some doubt?" said the Professor.

"I leave it to them--it depends where they choose to lay the cloth,"
said Horace. "Sometimes in one place; sometimes in another. There's a
great charm in uncertainty," he faltered.

"Doubtless," said the Professor.

By this time two of the slaves, under the direction of a tall and
turbaned black, had set a low ebony stool, inlaid with silver and
tortoiseshell in strange devices, on the round carpet, when other
attendants followed with a circular silver tray containing covered
dishes, which they placed on the stool and salaamed.

"Your--ah--groom of the chambers," said the Professor, "seems to have
decided that we should d