long-handled lorgnettes resting on the shiny arch of her aristocratic
nose, they responded without fail to the soft musical voice of the Arab
seated cross-legged on the leader.

Then her eyes turned to the West.

To the mixed mob which had rushed from the _Norddeutscher Lloyd_ at
Suez, leaving the great liner to the wise few, while perspiring and
querulous, and altogether unpleasant, they had filled the little train
which chuffs its way along the edge of the canal to Ismailiah, and
through the dust and fly-laden miles to Cairo, where it turns its
burden out to clamour and argue vociferously with the wily dragoman who
would take a herd of elephants to "do" the Pyramids in one hour if the
backsheesh proved substantial enough.

With absolute loathing she gazed at those with whom she had passed so
many weary days on the return journey from Australia.

There were of a certain type of English women not a few, sunburnt, loud
of voice, lean of breast and narrow of hip.

Their sisters, wiser and better endowed by nature, had remained on the
liner, taking advantage of the empty conditions of the boat to repair
the ravage done to complexion and wardrobe by the sizzling, salt-laden
wind which had tortured them since Colombo had been left behind.

Two daughters and a mother stood aloofly in the shade thrown by the
indescribable waiting-room; the mother still labouring under the
delusion that if you can't afford to send your girls properly wardrobed
on a visit to relations in India, the next best method of annexing