A PSEUDO ARAB. 97 



ourselves of our views for the future ; and very mucli sur- 

 prised me by recapitulating several circumstances and events 

 that had lately occurred at Jaulnah. At length my astonish- 

 ment was destined to arrive at its climax, when, leaning 

 towards me on the table, he remarked, in a jocular and 

 familiar tone, "Your father was a curious old fellow; he 

 possessed many good qualities, but too much of the obstinacy 

 and prejudice of the old English school." 



What my late father could have to do with a Bombay 

 Arab was to me not only a matter of conjecture, but of 

 intense surprise, which I suppose was pretty clearly written 

 on my countenance, and which evidently only added to his 

 amusement. 



" Yes," he continued ; " it is a droll coincidence that I 

 should have an opportunity of entertaining you at my table 

 in return for a very different sort of entertainment he gave 

 me many years ago." 



After a few more remarks of this sort, allusions to well- 

 known spots and scenes at home, and to geographical and 

 topographical reminiscences of my own county, with some 

 little hesitation he explained the mystery. 



The noble-looking Arab was simply the son of a W k- 



shire farmer, who had received a good education, but had 

 committed (or was accused of committing, as he expressed it) 

 some offence against the laws of his country, of which he was 

 convicted before my father, who happened to be Chairman 

 of the Quarter Sessions, and who, according to the Draconian 

 system carried on in the good old days of George III., 

 sentenced hi m to a short term of transportation. 



This expired or abridged, he had arrived in the East, and 

 by some chance or other had been engaged by the late Mr. 

 Banks to travel with him through the Holy Land, Arabia, 

 &c., and had been the constant companion of that celebrated 

 traveller, who had taken a great fancy to him, and was most 



II 



