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BEDREDDIN HASSAN.
103
" Well, now, your majesty, if
you would condescend
we were just going to have onr tea, me and Jacky, and
Mr. Horner, and Tommy Tomkins, and Polly Hopkins,
and Rhoda and the Chimney-Elf and if ; yonr majesty
would sit down and take a dish o' tea, and taste one
of my mince-pies, and a piece
of Bedreddin Hassan's
cream-tart
*'
And we'll have the queen's tarts too," interrupted
the king.
" My exercise has given me an appetite, and
I should be delighted to get some tea."
" Well now, that's clever ! " exclaimed Mrs. Horner.
" Polly, is the tea made ? Set out the table quick, and
let's have it while it's fresh and good."
"But I thought
Bedreddin Hassan went home to
Egypt with his wife, and her father, and his mother,
and Agib," remarked the king, fingering one of the tarts
longingly.
" Oh, yes, he did Polly, the best tea-things he did,
your majesty ;
but the truth is he'd been a pastry-cook
so long, and was so young when he went at it,
that he'd
rather lost the knack of doing viziers work, and the
Sultan of Egypt felt a good deal discontented with him.
Then again, the Lady of Beauty had a good many high
notions, and after the novelty had worn off, she used
to ask Bedreddin Hassan what was the price of butter
to-day, and whether he ever tried pepper on a creamtart,
and questions like that, which didn't make things
any pleasanter between them. Little Agib was apt to