Wearisome and expensive as this enjoyment of popularity was--for in my outward appearance and bearing I could not neglect any of the prescribed forms which mark the "distinguished foreigner"--my position afforded me the opportunity of studying London society, and through it the aims and objects of the highest representatives of Western culture, in a manner which might otherwise not have come within my reach. When in my youth I journeyed Westward I never went beyond the frontiers of Austria, and it was always only in literary pursuits that I came in contact with Western lands: hence I never saw any but the theoretical side of things. And now I was transplanted from the depths of Asia, _i.e._, from the extreme end of old-world culture and gross barbarism into the extreme of Western civilisation and modern culture; and overpowering as was the impression of all that I saw and experienced, equally interesting to me was the comparison of the two stages of human progress. What surprised me more than anything was the wealth, the comfort, and the luxury of the English country houses, compared to which the rich colouring of Oriental splendour--existing as a matter of fact mostly in legends and fairy tales--cuts but a poor figure. As for me, who all my life had only seen the smile of fortune from a distance, I was struck with admiration. Most difficult of all I found it to get used to the elaborate meals and the table pomp of the English aristocracy. I could not help thinking of the time of my Dervishship, when my meals consisted sometimes of begged morsels and sometimes of _pilaw_ which I cooked myself. Now I had to eat through an endless series of courses, and drink the queerest mixtures. During this period of my lionship it was strangest of all to think of the miseries of my childish days and the time when I was a mendicant student. It was the realisation of the fairy tale of the beggar and the prince; and with reference to this I shall never forget one night which I spent at the magnificent country house of the Duke of A., not far from Richmond. I was guest there together with Lord Clarendon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other English notabilities. After dinner the company adjourned to the luxuriously furnished smoke-room, and from there shortly before midnight every guest was conducted to his respective bedroom by a lacquey preceding him with two huge silver chandeliers. When the powdered footman dressed in red silk velvet had ushered me into the splendidly furnished bedroom, provided with every possible comfort and luxury, and began to take steps to assist me in undressing, I looked at the man quite dumbfounded and said with a friendly smile, "Thank you, I can manage alone." The footman departed. I feasted my eyes upon all the grandeur around me. It was like a cabinet full of precious curiosities and overflowing with silver articles and wonderful arrangements of all sorts. When I turned back the