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you mind if I use part of the 100 for the hire of a private
brougham?
Have a coach and six, my dear Mrs. McMurray, I said. It will
doubtless please Carlotta better.
I summoned Carlotta and performed the ceremony of introduction.
To my surprise she was perfectly at her ease and with the
greatest courtesy of manner invited the visitor to accompany her
to her own apartments.
When Mrs. McMurray returned to the drawingroom she wore an
expression that can only be described as indescribable.
What, my dear Sir Marcus, do you think is to be the ultimate
destiny of that young person?
She shall learn typewriting, said I, suddenly inspired, and
make a fair copy of my Renaissance Morals.
She would make a very fair copy indeed of Renaissance Morals,
returned the lady, dryly.
Is she so very dreadful? I asked in alarm. The peignoir, I
know
Perhaps that has something to do with it.
Then, for heaven's sake, said I, dress her in drabs and greys
and subfusc browns. Cut off her hair and give her a row of
buttons down the back.
My friend's eyes sparkled.
I am going, said she, to have the day of my life tomorrow.
Carlotta had already gone to sleep, so Antoinette informed me,
when the results of Mrs. McMurray's shopping came home. I am
glad she has early habits. It appears she has spent a happy and
fully occupied afternoon over a pile of French illustrated comic
papers in the possession of my excellent housekeeper.
I wonder whether it is quite judicious to make French comic
papers her initiation into the ideas of Western civilisation.
Into this I must inquire. I must also talk seriously to her with
a view to her ultimate destiny. But as my view would be
distorted by the red dressinggown, I shall wait until she is
decently clad. I think I shall have to set apart certain hours
of the day for instructive conversation with Carlotta. I shall
have to develop her mind, of which she distinctly has the
rudiments. For the rest of the day she must provide entertainment
out of her own resources. This her oriental habits of
seclusion will render an easy task, for I will wager that
Hamdi Effendi did not concern himself greatly as to the way in
which the ladies of his harem filled up their time. And now I
come to think of it, he certainly did not allow Carlotta to
sprawl about his own private and particular drawingroom. I will
not westernise her too rapidly. The Turkish educational system
has its merits.
This, in its way is comforting. If only I could accept her as a

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