Volume II, “Superstition in Tunis”; Chapter XX, Volume II, “A Tunisian

Harem, and the Tombs of the Beys.”

It was when she was visiting Tunis with us that she first heard the “East a-callin’.” She found it absolutely irresistible. In the short time that we were there she began to learn Arabic, and acquired quite a good knowledge of Arab amulets, and the Egyptian amulets in the museum at Carthage. She afterwards paid another visit to Tunis before she wrote her memorable book, _The Veil_, one of the most successful novels of its year.

In search of a fresh Oriental subject, she next went to Haifa, the Syrian seaport, where she was lucky enough to live in the little colony which surrounded the present head of the Bahai movement, and to see a great deal of the inner working of that movement, which is said to count half the Shia Mohammedans (chiefly Persians) among its secret adherents. So high an opinion did Abbas Effendi form of her abilities, that he invited her to stay in his house and gave her a special course of instruction, which lasted over many months, in the philosophy of the sect.

Her stay at Haifa also supplied her with the materials for her second novel, _The Mountain of God_. Since then she has published several able and successful books, just as _The Earthen Drum_, _The Long Engagement_, _The Lure_ and _Sarah Eden_, for the material of which she paid two visits to Jerusalem.

My next secretary, who was with me for seven years, has also had three books published by leading firms.

It is not by any means an uncommon thing for authors’ secretaries to become authors. One of the most conspicuous examples is Mary E. Wilkins, now Mrs. Freeman-Wilkins, who was for a long time secretary to Oliver Wendell Holmes. I well remember the day when he stopped me in the street in Boston (U.S.A.), to say, “I have a hated rival. My secretary, Mary Wilkins, has just published a novel—a much better one than I ever wrote.”