glancing down a row of these amiable priests I could scarcely repress a
smile at the constant recurrence of the line of beauty in their well-
rounded persons.

On the right and left of the archbishop were the few invited guests, and
at the other end of the saloon sat one of the fathers, the plump key-stone
of an arch of comfortable young students expanding toward us. Most of the
boys are from Turkey (the Armenians of Venice, though acknowledging the
Pope as their spiritual head, are the subjects of the Sultan), others are
of Asiatic birth, and two are Egyptians.

As to the last, I think the Sphinx and the Pyramid could hardly have
impressed me more than their dark faces, that seemed to look vaguely on
our modern world from the remote twilights of old, and in their very
infancy to be reverend through the antiquity of their race. The mother of
these boys--a black-eyed, olive-cheeked lady, very handsome and stylish--
was present with their younger brother. I hardly know whether to be
ashamed of having been awed by hearing of the little Egyptian that his
native tongue was Arabic, and that he spoke nothing more occidental than
Turkish. But, indeed, was it wholly absurd to offer a tacit homage to this
favored boy, who must know the "Arabian Nights" in the original?

The exercises began with a theme in Armenian--a language which, but for
its English abundance of sibilants, and a certain German rhythm, was
wholly outlandish to our ears. Themes in Italian, German, and French
succeeded, and then came one in English. We afterward had speech with the
author of this essay, who expressed the liveliest passion for English, in
the philosophy and poetry of which it seemed he particularly delighted. He
told us that he was a Constantinopolitan, and that in six months more he
would complete his collegiate course, when he would return to his native