d all been created by the wand of some magician for a princess
in a fairytale. What a contrast to our hut in the Valley!"

"You like it better than a new house in the European settlement? You
think I chose wisely?"

"Of course I do. Who wouldn't?"

"This house costs us no more than a good flat would in the European
part of the city, but you have to come through the native quarters to
get to it, remember. Many people would object to that."

"I hate the European quarter of Cairo," Margaret said. "It seems to me
so vulgar and degenerate. The native quarter is just what it sets out
to be, no better and no worse."

"Well, you must come and stay with us--my husband will enjoy showing
you the hidden beauties of Cairo. He is devoted to it."

Margaret's ears caught the sound of water. It was coming from a tall
fountain which was playing in the centre of the outer hall. Above it
was a pendentive roof, richly carved and coloured. A suggestion of
turquoise-blue and the gleam of iridescent tiles showed through the
clear water in the octagonal basin set in the floor. The jets of water
came from a large ball of blue faience resting on the top of a slender
spiral column. The fountain was only one of the beautiful features of
that Eastern mansion which Margaret noticed as her hostess conducted
her to the inner courtyard.

"How enchanting it all is!" Margaret said. "I feel much too prosaic to
imagine spending my everyday working hours in it." Her life in the hut
seemed better suited to her practical nature.

"I love it," Hadassah said. "And I like its emptiness. That is the
native idea. We have tried not to make it look like a mediaeval
museum, not to stuff it up with things. It's a great temptation."

"Its sense of space is its greatest charm. There is everything you can
possibly want in it, and yet it has none of the absurd knick-knacks and
useless lumber of Western houses. My brother and I have learned to do
without so much that I don't think we shall ever fall into the sin of
overcrowding our rooms again."

Hadassah laughed. "Will you have the courage to burn family
relics?--Aunt Maria's uncomfortable ottoman, Aunt Elizabeth's
escritoire, which is too small to write at, and Aunt Anne's firescreen
with strawberries worked in bead-work?"

"Oh, I know them all," Margaret said. "Just compare them to these
beautiful things!"

"Don't forget," Hadassah said, "that you are comparing the things of
England'