A gleam of satisfaction produced a thaw of the collector's ice-bound
visage, and, descending to the street, I accompanied him until we
arrived at a house two stories high, which we entered by a wide new
wooden gate, and then mounting a staircase, scrupulously clean, were
shown into his principal room, which was surrounded by a divan _a la
Turque_; but it had no carpet, so we went straight in with our boots
on. A German chest of drawers was in one corner; the walls were plain
white-washed, and so was a stove about six feet high; the only
ornament of the room was a small snake moulding in the centre of the
roof. Some oak chairs were ranged along the lower end of the room, and
a table stood in the middle, covered with a German linen cloth,
representing Pesth and Ofen; the Bloxberg being thrice as lofty as the
reality, the genius of the artist having set it in the clouds. The
steamer had a prow like a Roman galley, a stern like a royal yacht,
and even the steam from the chimney described graceful volutes, with
academic observance of the line of beauty.

"We are still somewhat rude and un-European in Shabatz," said Gospody
Ninitch, for such was the name in which the collector rejoiced.

"Indeed," quoth I, sitting at my ease on the divan, "there is no room
for criticism. The Turks now-a-days take some things from Europe; but
Europe might do worse than adopt the divan more extensively; for,
believe me, to an arriving traveller it is the greatest of all
luxuries."

Here the servants entered with chibouques. "I certainly think," said
he, "that no one would smoke a cigar who could smoke a chibouque."

"And no man would sit on an oak chair who could sit on a divan:" so