CHAPTER XIII.

Impressions of England—Letters to a Friend in the 216 East—Voyage to England—Landing—Custom-house—Crowded Thoroughfares—English Activity—Hotel—Servants—Drive—Motley Groups—Squares—Park—Houris—Heart-aches—Dinner—English Splendour, but Syrian Ease and a Chibuk preferred—English Acquaintances—Society—Young Ladies—Their Freedom—Matrons—Their Acquirements—Etiquette—Dress—Widows—Gentlemen—English Sabbath—Public Schools and Colleges—The Queen—Missionary and Charitable Institutions—Great Wealth of the English—The Merchants—The Fashionable World—The Opera—Expensive Pleasure—Insatiable Craving for Riches—Desire for an English Home—Marriages—Children—Schooling—Absence of Reverence for Beards—Devotion of the Young Fair Sex to Uniforms—Kindness to Strangers—Interest in the Holy Land—Hospitality—Private Worth and Public Scheming