Arabia, whose interminable rhymes have a perennial charm. Perhaps such lines as these,-- 'All that is fair is fairer when she rises, All that is sweet is sweeter when she is here; And every form of beauty she surprises With one brief word she whispers in its ear: 'Thy wondrous charms, O let them not deceive thee; They are but borrowed from her for a while; Thine outward guise and loveliness would grieve thee, If in thine inmost soul she did not smile. 'All colours, forms, into each other merging, Are woven on her Loom of Unity; For she alone is One in All diverging, And she alone is absolute and free.' "Now, I will bring you to a scene most curiously suggestive. Behold that little knot of daisies pressing around the alone anemone beneath the spreading leaves of the colocasia. Here is a rout at the Countess Casiacole's, and these are the débutantes crowding around the Celebrity of the day. But would they do so if they were sensible of their own worth, if they knew that their idol, flaunting the crimson crown of popularity, had no more, and perhaps less, of the pure essence of life than any of them? But let Celebrity stand there and enjoy her hour; to-morrow the Ploughman will come. * * * * * "The sage, with its spikes of greyish blue flowers, its fibrous, velvety leaves, its strong, pungent perfume, which is not squandered or repressed, is the stoic of my native terraces. It responds generously to the personal touch, and serves the Lebanonese, rich and poor alike, with a little luxury. Ay, who of us, wandering on foreign strands, does not remember the warm foot-bath, perfumed with sage leaves, his mother used to give him before going to bed? Our dear mothers!"--And here, Khalid goes in raptures and tears about his sorry experience in Baalbek and the anguish and sorrow of his poor mother. "But while I stand," he continues, "let me be like the sage, a live-oak among shrubs, indifferent as the oak or pine to the winds and storms. And as the sun is setting, find you no solace in the thought, O Khalid, that some angel herb-gatherer will preserve the perfume in your leaves, to refresh therewith in other worlds your dear poor mother?