by a stray tourist as having been head
shampooer at a bath in Cairo. The same tourist
declared that the sheikh's eldest son had
frequently attended on him in the capacity of
a donkey-boy at Alexandria; that the sheikh
himself, in the intervals of shampooing, was in
the habit of relating improper stories, receiving
payment in copper for the same, that the mother
and her two daughters had belonged to the
honourable fraternity of Almé, and that one
particular houri, with the biggest black eyes
ever seen out of a sloe-bush, whose vocation it
was to sit cross-legged, in very baggy trousers,
on a divan, and smoke a hubble-bubble, was an
Algerian Jewess, who had formerly kept a little
shop for the sale of sham sequins, and attar of
roses even more spurious, in Marseilles. Be it
as it may, the Ouli Zoug Zoug Arabs from
Mecca were, for a time, very instrumental in
filling Mr. McVariety's treasury. It was a great
sight to see the sheikh, with his very big green
turban, and his very long white beard, strumming
on a species of banjo the Arab mandolin,
I presume—while the Jewess smoked her
narghilé, and the daughters danced the shawl-
dance, kicking off their yellow slippers, and
letting down their back hair in the most
exciting passages, while the old woman, who
had a pair of moustaches which would have done
honour to a grenadier of the Old Guard, handed
coffee round to the visitors at a shilling a cup;
and the son, who had been a donkey-boy,
executed complicated sarabands and back
somersaults, uttering, meanwhile, the cries of
his native country. The family were strict
Mahomedans, and when they ate butchers' meat,
which was seldom, a sheep was purchased for
them, which they killed on the premises. You
paid sixpence extra to see the sheikh grovelling
on his prayer carpet: and the ladies never
appeared in the promenade in the Gardens
after the performance, without being strictly
veiled. It was, however, unfortunately
discovered that even the tourist was wrong in his
shampooing theory, and that the sheikh was
an Irishman, who had been discharged, not
honourably, from the service of the Honourable
East India Company. A newspaper exposure
put an end to the performances of the Ouli
Zoug Zoug Arabs. They essayed to work the
provinces, first as Dancing Dervishes, and next
as Maronite Christians fleeing from the cruel
persecutions of the Turkish government; but
were at last obliged to retire to Mecca, or
Ireland, or obscurity.

And now the Cottage was occupied by Madame
Ernestine, as the direct heir and next of kin, in
a professional line, of the Ouli Zoug Zoug
Arabs, stars of the East, whose light had waned
and flickered and gone out, like many other
lights of the other days of Ranelagh. But
Madame Ernestine's star, at this moment,
seemed to be in the ascendant, and Mr.
McVariety had paid full homage to her
importance by furnishing the Cottage with many
elegant articles which lie had not vouchsafed to
former occupants. He had fitted up the
largest apartment as a drawing-room, and
flattered himself that he had done the thing in
first-rate style. It is true that the carpet did
not cover the whole of the room; but it was a
bright red one, of a large pattern, with a fringe
all round, and was thus a little suggestive of
Indian splendour. The curtains of the windows
were somewhat dingy and faded; but being
lined with new pink calico, and tied up with
yellow cord, with depending tassels, of the
patterns which we see in portraits of military
heroes, taken with a background of pillar and
curtained sky, were indicative, particularly from
the outside, of dainty elegance combined with
magnificence. Mr. McVariety had aimed at
splendour rather than comfort, and, with this
view, had introduced a great deal of lacquered
brass and gilding into the apartment. There
were heavy gilt cornices over the windows; an
ormolu clock, with an obstinate partiality for
half-past four, on the mantel-shelf; two or three
rickety inlaid tables, with brass rosettes on their
hips, and brass claws at the extremities of their
legs; a tremendous ormolu chandelier, designed
on a scale adapted to halls of dazzling light,
and consequently altogether out of proportion
to its present sphere, and a dozen or so of white
and gold chairs, which had evidently, at one time
or other, formed a portion of the costly furniture
in the grand salon of a stage marquis. All this
would doubtless have been very magnificent had
not the effect been slightly marred by traces of
the Albino Family and the Ouli Zoug Zougs on the
walls and ceiling. Those traces consisted of
stains and splashes upon the dingy paper, as if
the Patriarch had been in the habit of throwing
his heeltaps in the faces of the members of his
amiable family, and missing his mark; and of
dark smudges upon the ceiling, dimly suggesting
that the Zoug Zougs had used the apartment as
a dormitory, and been accustomed to go upon
nocturnal hunting expeditions with a tallow
candle. It was suggested by a certain person,
that in order to have all things in keeping, it
would be well to treat the walls to a new paper,
and the ceiling to a pail of whitewash, but Mr.
McVariety would not hear of such a thing.
"Never mind paper and whitewash," he said;
"with all this gold about, and that magnificent
chandelier, which cost a hundred pounds when
new if it cost a penny, the room will look first-
rate at night. When madame sits in one of those
gilded chairs with her feet upon the back of that
gilt stool, she'll think she is a countess in
downright earnest."

Two of the smaller apartments had been fitted
up as bedrooms, one for Madame Ernestine and
the other for Lily. The appointments of these
rooms were in much better taste than those of
the drawing-room. Lily's little dormitory
was exceedingly neat and dainty. It was
furnished all in white—a white carpet with
a small blue forget-me-not running through it,
white dimity curtains to the little bed, and a white
muslin covering on the toilet-table, on which
stood an oval looking-glass in a white enamelled
frame, wreathed about with lace. Madame's