aggrieved at the more fortunate who had come at the eleventh
hour on the last night's steamer, and seemed to think these
latter had attained the privilege without sufficient effort.
The ministers of the different legations--as is the harmless
custom of such gentlemen--had impressed every one for whom
they had obtained permission to see the treasures with the
great importance of the service rendered, and had succeeded in
making every one feel either especially honored or especially
uncomfortable at having given them so much trouble. This
sense of obligation, and the fact that the dragomans had
assured the tourists that they were for the time being the
guests of the Sultan, awed and depressed most of the visitors
to such an extent that their manner in the long procession of
carriages suggested a funeral cortege, with the Hohenwalds in
front, escorted by Beys and Pashas, as chief mourners. The
procession halted at the palace, and the guests of the Sultan
were received by numerous effendis in single-button
frock-coats and freshly ironed fezzes, who served them with
glasses of water, and a huge bowl of some sweet stuff, of
which every one was supposed to take a spoonful. There was at
first a general fear among the Cook's tourists that there
would not be enough of this to go round, which was succeeded
by a greater anxiety lest they should be served twice. Some
of the tourists put the sweet stuff in their mouths direct and
licked the spoon, and others dropped it off the spoon into the
glass of water, and stirred it about and sipped at it, and no
one knew who had done the right thing, not even those who
happened to have done it. Carlton and Miss Morris went out on
to the terrace while this ceremony was going forward, and
looked out over the great panorama of waters, with the Sea of