"
"Sleep!" Lady Mabel exclaimed, "they murdered sleep, and mine were
waking torments."
"It is all owing to the filthy habits of the nation," continued
Mrs. Shortridge. "The very pigs and asses are as much a part of the
family as the children of the house."
"The fraternization of the human race with brutes, which prevails
here," L'Isle remarked, "certainly, promotes neither comfort nor
cleanliness. Indeed, it is curious, that as you go from north to
south, cleanliness should decline in the inverse ratio with the need
of it. Compared with ourselves, the French are not a cleanly people,
but become so when contrasted with their neighbors, the Spaniards, who
are, in turn, less filthy than the Portuguese, whose climate renders
cleanliness still more necessary."
"By that ratio, what standard of cleanliness will you find in
Morocco?" asked Lady Mabel.
"Perhaps a prominent and redeeming feature in their religion," said
L'Isle, "may exalt the standard there. Mahomedan ablutions may avail
much in this world, though little in the next."
"I am afraid," said Lady Mabel, "that their cleanly superstition will
make me almost regret the expulsion of the Moors.
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