his death, when she married Hegab. She is a pious Muslimeh, and invoked
the intercession of Seyidna Mohammad for me when I told her I had no
intention of baptizing Zeyneb by force, as had been done to her.

The fault of my lodging here is the noise. We are on the road from the
railway and there is no quiet except in the few hot hours, when nothing
is heard but the cool tinkle of the Sakka's brass cup as he sells water
in the street, or perchance _erksoos_ (liquorice-water), or caroub or
raisin sherbet. The _erksoos_ is rather bitter and very good. I drink
it a good deal, for drink one must; a gulleh of water is soon gone. A
gulleh is a wide-mouthed porous jar, and Nile water drunk out of it
without the intervention of a glass is delicious. Omar goes to market
every morning with a donkey--I went too, and was much amused--and cooks,
and in the evening goes out with me if I want him. I told him I had
recommended him highly, and hoped he would get good employment; but he
declares that he will go with no one else so long as I come to Egypt,
whatever the difference of wages may be. 'The bread I eat with you is
sweet'--a pretty little unconscious antithesis to Dante. I have been
advising his brother Hajjee Ali to start a hotel at Thebes for invalids,
and he has already set about getting a house there; there is _one_. Next
winter there will be steamers twice a week--to Assouan! Juvenal's
distant Syene, where he died in banishment. My old washerwoman sent me a
fervent entreaty through Omar that I would dine with her one day, since I
had made Cairo delightful with my presence. If one will only devour
these people's food, they are enchanted; they like that much better than
a present. So I will honour her house some day. Good old Hannah, she is
divorced for being too fat and old, and replaced by a young Turk whose
family sponge on Hajjee Ali and are condescending. If I could afford it,
I would have a sketch of a beloved old mosque of mine, falling to decay,
and with three palm-trees growing in the middle of it. Indeed, I would