EASTERN TALK. 197 



" It was a sudden notion. I was sitting in my room at 

 Zech's in Cairo, that little room that opens on the front 

 by the door, when I overheard a conversation which in- 

 terested me somewhat. I was lonesome just then, and 

 withal I did not know where to go next. It was there- 

 fore pleasant to hear familiar voices talking of going 

 somewhere. It turned out that the talkers were Ameri- 

 can travelers. Some of them knew people that were 

 friends of ours. I joined them, and they persuaded me to 

 cross the desert. They went to Sinai. I left Cairo a week 

 later, crossed to Akabah, and waited for them there, and 

 so we went together to Petra, and thence by Hebron to 

 Jerusalem. Afterward I was possessed with the idea of 

 doing Asia Minor, at least so far as seeing the cities of 

 the seven churches, and we did that too.'' 



" Poor John !" 



"May I venture to ask the meaning of that tone of 

 voice ?" 



"What a lonesome life you have been leading, John. 

 When we parted in Switzerland I felt as if I should never 

 see you again. You have such a strange way of wander- 

 ing off alone. You have seen a great deal of the world, 

 but never, since we left you, have had any one to enjoy 

 travel with you." 



" Company I never lacked. There was Laroche, the 

 best Frenchman I ever knew ; Strong, whose good heart 

 I wrote you about when I was sick in Aleppo; and Hall, 

 the Englishman who did me a good turn one night in Da- 

 mascus, when it might have gone hard with me but for 

 him." 



" But you did not love one of them. I know that. The 

 truth is, John, that travel, to be thoroughly enjoyed, must 

 be with familiar and, more than familiar, affectionate com- 



