Page:Sixteen years of an artist's life in Morocco, Spain and the Canary Islands.djvu/26

juncture, I had the pleasure of meeting Her Britannic Majesty's diplomatic agent, who, having come to Tangier on visit to his family, had hastened down to escort me to his house. But I was not yet to be permitted to escape from the curious throng who pressed upon our steps. Their number rather increased than diminished as we proceeded on our way, and their wonder seemed rather to grow than to be satiated by the food with which they fed their eyes. It was consequently with considerable difficulty that we made our way through the narrow streets, or, as I imagined them at the time to be, back lanes, for being as yet a perfect stranger to the peculiar features of Moorish towns, I thought that Mr. D. H., in order to escape our persevering tormentors, was taking me by a short cut to his residence. I was not yet accustomed to the narrow lanes and monotonous white walls that intersect all Mohammedan towns; besides, I was bewildered by the novelty of the spectacle that met my eyes in whatever direction I turned them. With the eye of an artist, I singled out the beautiful little fountains sending forth their refreshing streams of sparkling water, and the elegant little alcoves which afforded so welcome a shelter from the oppressive heat of the noonday sun. I cannot say,