"Excellent, major," exclaimed Alister; "of all your Egyptian stories, this is the best. Then it was the daughters you went to see?" "To be sure it was! and for the pleasure of beholding them, endured every evening the staring and smoking with their ferocious old dog of a papa, who, could he have divined what the two giaours were after, would soon have employed some of his followers to deprive us of our heads. I am sure, by the pleased and melting expression of their eyes, that the girls knew what we came about, and we would certainly have opened a correspondence with them by some means, could we have done so; but as they were kept almost continually under lock and key, we never found an opportunity to see them alone, and letters—if we could have written them—would have been useless, as they could neither read nor write a word of any known language, their education being entirely confined to dancing, singing, and playing on the _’o-ód_, a kind of guitar used in Egypt: it is a plano-convex affair, which you may often see introduced in eastern views and paintings. "Well, as I related before, on the evening after the blowing of the _kamsin_, Fassifern and I departed on our daily visit, eagerly hoping that we might have an opportunity to see Zela and Azri, the two daughters, alone, as we marched the next day _en route_ for that great city of the genii and the fairies, Grand Cairo, and might never again be at Alexandria. We were confoundedly smitten, I assure you, though we have often laughed at it since. We were as much in love as two very romantic young subalterns could be, and very earnest—hoping, fearing, trembling, and all that—we were in the matter." "Well, major, and which was your flame?" "Zela was mine. They named her, ’the White Rose of Sidrah;’ which means, I believe, ’the wonderful tree of Mahomet’s paradise.’ But to continue: "On approaching the house, we found it all deserted and silent. The carpet and pipe lay under the shadow of the umbrageous nopal, but the grave and portly Mohammed Djedda was not there. The house and garden likewise were tenantless, and after wandering for some time among its maze of flower-beds and little groves, where the apricot, the pomegranate, date-palm, custard-apple, and fig-tree, flourished luxuriantly, we were met by one of Mohammed’s half-naked slaves, who informed us—me at least, as I alone knew a little of his guttural language,—that the Capitan Djedda, his four wives, his slaves, and all his household, were gone to the great mosque, to return thanks for the passing away of the _kamsin_. "As we were very much overcome by the heat of the atmosphere, we were about to enter the cool marble vestibule of the mansion, when the airy figures of the young ladies, in their floating drapery, appeared at an upper window. "’Now or never, Colin!’ said Fassifern. ’The young ladies are upstairs and the house is empty; we will pay them a visit now in safety.’