‘Egypt,’ said he, ‘never changes. ‘Tis the same land as in the days of the Pharaohs: governed on their principles of political economy, with a Hebrew for prime minister.’
‘A Hebrew for prime minister!’
‘Even so: Artim Bey, the present prime minister of Egypt, formerly the Pasha’s envoy at Paris, and by far the best political head in the Levant, is not only the successor but the descendant of Joseph.’
‘He must be added then to your friend M. de Sidonia’s list of living Hebrew statesmen,’ said Tancred.
‘We have our share of the government of the world,’ said Besso.
‘It seems to me that you govern every land except your own.’
‘That might have been done in ‘39,’ said Besso musingly; ‘but why speak of a subject which can little interest you?’
‘Can little interest me!’ exclaimed Tancred. ‘What other subject should interest me? More than six centuries ago, the government of that land interested my ancestor, and he came here to achieve it.’
The stars were shining before they quitted the Arabian tabernacle of Besso. The air was just as soft as a sweet summer English noon, and quite as still. The pavilions of the terrace and the surrounding bowers were illuminated by the varying tints of a thousand lamps. Bright carpets and rich cushions were thrown about for those who cared to recline; the brothers Farhi, for example, and indeed most of the men, smoking inestimable nargilehs. The Consul-General Laurella begged permission to present Lord Montacute to his daughters Thérèse and Sophonisbe, who, resolved to show to him that Damascus was not altogether so barbarous as he deemed it, began talking of new dances and the last opera. Tancred would have found great difficulty in sustaining his part in the conversation, had not the young ladies fortunately been requested to favour those present with a specimen of the art in which they excelled, which they did after much solicitation, vowing that they had no voice to-night, and that it was impossible at all times to sing except in a chamber.
‘For my part,’ said Hillel Besso, with an extremely piquant air, ‘music in a chamber is very charming, but I think also in the open air it is not so bad.’