AND LOWER EGYPT. 255 



a variety of signs; I came up to him, and asked 

 whether there might not be some indiscretion in 

 witnessing a conversation which appeared to me 

 extremely animated, though not a single word was 

 articulated. He readily admitted the truth of my 

 remark. He was on the point of leaving Cairo, 

 and besides, he could attach no interest but that of 

 singularity, to the knowledge of a female, of whom 

 he had scarcely a half view, and with whom he 

 could have no communication but at the distance 

 of more than sixty feet. I distinguished, through 

 a grating of wood, the figure of a woman who 

 lodged on the opposite side of the kalisch y or canal 

 of Cairo. She returned the Frenchman's signs, 

 and these silent interviews were repeated several 

 times a day, at hours agreed upon. I did not fail 

 to make one of them, without being seen by the 

 lady. I learnt the art of signals, which, in a country 

 where it is impossible to speak to women, is a very 

 expressive language, and I myself was soon in a 

 condition to be a very tolerable telegraph. The 

 young man, obliged to take his departure with the 

 consul, had taken his last farewell of the lady. Left 

 alone in the house, I presented myself to supply 

 his place. I signified that, being a Frenchman like 

 the other, I came to express the same sentiments, 

 and to tender the same homage. Soon tired of 

 peeping through the close bars of a contracted 

 window-blind, and of addressing my vows only to 



a beauty 



