lf in an unfavourable light it is in front of that
horrible, muttering, jibbering instrument, when, after the introductory
"Who's there?" and information as to who you are repeated _ad nauseam_,
there rumble to your ear the most exasperating sounds, so full of
meaning and yet conveying nothing, until it seems as though the person
at the other end were mocking you, and the tone of his voice gets so
irritating that you long to throw down the tubes and make a rush at him.
However, on this occasion X. wisely left the whole matter in the hands
of the proprietor, who presently informed him that the Resident invited
him to an open air concert given at the Concordia Club in honour of the
General, then the man of the hour, and, if he would care to come, an
English friend would presently call for him at the hotel. The only
possible answer to such a welcome invitation was duly transmitted.

X. has, according to his own account, all his life been a most fortunate
individual. Wherever he went he has always, as the phrase has it,
"fallen on his feet." On this expedition his luck did not desert him,
and on the appearance of his fellow countryman which took place (to be
exact in speaking of an event now historical) at 9 p.m., there commenced
a new departure which forged a first link in the chain of events which
was to happily land him in the most beautiful country that he had ever
yet beheld. X. has always thought of telephones more kindly since.

CHAPTER VII.

A CONCERT AT THE CONCORDIA CLUB.

The traveller was naturally much impressed with the scene at the
Concordia Club. In the beautiful gardens, which were gorgeously
illuminated, people were walking about and sitting down as though it
were an English summer night. But, as in the East thoughts of health and
diet always occupy an extraordinarily prominent place in the minds of
all who have dwelt there for any length of time, that which chiefly
struck the stranger was the apparently reckless indifference to fever
displayed by those _flaneurs_ who dawdled about under the trees on this
treacherous soil, as though it were the harmless green grass of
Hurlingham at home. And it almost relieved him to hear presently from a
lady, to whom he expressed this astonishment, that the doctors declared
this season of open air concerts was certainly the most busy time for
colds and fever. The Resident and his party were seated at a round table
on the top of the flight of marble steps leadi