thin the cell--nay, may crawl up into it if he will--in
which have mouldered the bones of some former visitor to Jerusalem.
For this, so saith tradition, is the field purchased with the reward
of iniquity. It was the burying-place for strangers, Aceldama, the
field of blood.

But where be these bones now? for the catacombs are mostly empty. Mr.
Pott, descending as far as he could into the deepest of them, did at
last bring forth a skull and two parts of a back-bone; did present
the former with much grace to Miss Jones, who, on beholding it, very
nearly fell from off her donkey.

"For shame, Pott," said Mr. Cruse. "How could you handle anything
so disgusting? You are desecrating the grave of some unfortunate
Mussulman who has probably died within the last fifty years." Mr.
Cruse was always intent on showing that he believed none of the
traditions of the country.

"It was quite dreadful of you, Mr. Pott," said Miss Jones; "quite
dreadful! Indeed, I don't know what you would not do. But I am quite
sure he was never a Mahomedan."

"He looked like a Jew, didn't he?" said Pott.

"Oh! I did not see the face; but he was certainly either a Jew or a
Christian. Only think. Perhaps those remains have been there for
nearly eighteen hundred years. Is it not wonderful? Mamma, it was
just here that I lost my parasol."

Sir Lionel had headed the cavalcade with Miss Todd, but George
Bertram was true to his new friends, Miss Baker and Miss Waddington.
So also, for a time, were Mr. M'Gabbery and Mr. Cruse. As the aunt
and niece rode beside each other, a great part of this gallant
attention fell upon the former. Indeed, the easiest way of addressing
the beauty was often found to be through the beauty's aunt; and it
may be doubted whether Mr. M'Gabbery would not have retreated long
since in despair, but for the scintillations of civility which fell
to him from Miss Baker's good-humour. He had had the good fortune
of some previous days' journeying with them on horseback through
the desert, and had found that privilege gave him an inestimable
advantage over Mr. Cruse. Why should it not also suffice as regarded
this new comer? He had held much commune with himself on the subject
that morning; had called himself to task for his own pusillanimity,
and had then fortified his courage with the old reflection about fair
ladies and faint hearts--and also with a glass of brandy. He was
therefore disposed to make himself very unpleasant to poor