"And you did not call on me the very first—"
"On the contrary," replied the Dutchman, "I went to your office, but you were not there, and they told me I should find you here at seven o'clock."
"They were right," replied Kéraban, shaking the hand of his correspondent with great vigour. "My dear Van Mitten, I never—no, never—expected to see you in Constantinople. Why did you not write?"
"I quitted Holland so hurriedly."
"On business?"
"No, simply travelling for a change. I had never been in Constantinople, nor in Turkey at all, and I wished to return the visit you paid me in Rotterdam."
"Very good. But how is it Madame van Mitten is not with you?"
"Well, the fact is, I did not bring her," replied the Dutchman, hesitating. "Madame van Mitten is not so easily moved. So I came alone with my valet Bruno."
"Ah, yonder lad," said Kéraban, nodding at Bruno, who believed he ought to bow to the Turk with his hands to his forehead, like the arms of a semaphore.
"Yes," replied Van Mitten. "He wished to leave me just now and go—"
"Go away!" exclaimed Kéraban. "Go home again without my permission!"
"Yes, he finds your capital too dull. There is no life about it, he thinks."
"It is nothing but a mausoleum," said Bruno. "There is no one in the shops, there are no carriages in the streets. There are only ghosts in the city, and one cannot even smoke a pipe!"
"But it is the Ramadan, Van Mitten," said Kéraban. "We are in full fast!"
"Ah, so this is the Ramadan," and Bruno. "Well now, if you please, what is the Ramadan?"
"A time of fasting and abstinence," replied Kéraban. "While it lasts we are forbidden to drink, smoke, or eat—that is between the rising and setting of the sun. But in half an hour hence a cannon will signify the close of the day."
