The Throne of Solomon
Up over the brow of the hill, sitting apparently on masses of
luggage and with a parasol to shade her, die Hungarian-Greek
lady appeared, giving the last touch of fashion to our gathering.
" Quelles horribles gens" said she, as my assembly, having got
up to greet her, squatted down again at about two yards' dis-
tance. She shooed them away with her parasol. " Madame,"
said she, " I would never have thought it possible to live in
such a savage place. Every night I he and weep."
"Dear me," I remarked. "They all seem harmless
enough."
" How can one tell?" said she. " The houses are not safe.
There is a hole in every roof for light, and always I expect to
see a strange man letting himself down into my room. My
husband is away all day. All the time I think he has fallen
over the edge. Not a path here but, if you fall off it, you are
dead."
This seemed unreasonable. Why should anyone fall off a
path? But the lady hardly paused: she had so many woes to
pour out.
" Nearly all our luggage," she said, " we lost in a torrent in
the dark, coming up here through these forests. The bridge
gave way and all our cognac went."
This was, indeed, a tragedy. But why come up through
the jungle in the dark?
" It was because they made us late in starting." I could
sympathize with the poor lady over that. " You have no
idea, Madame, what a terrible life it is here. The people hate
us. I have grown old since I came three weeks ago."
Her husband, it appeared, was away all day surveying. He
had gone in for commerce in gramophones and, having lost
his money there, now hoped to recover it by engineering for
the Shah: but the royal salaries, she said, were anything but
regular. The Shah intended to develop all his new estate,
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