They have a refinement of appearance and manner, all unknown amongst the majority of the good people of our villages.

And those amongst them who by good fortune become prosperous have forthwith a kind of distinction, and seem to know, as if by birth, how to dispense the gracious hospitality of an aristocrat.

The hospitality of even the humblest preserves something of courtesy and ease, which tells of breed.

I remember those clear evenings when, after the peaceful navigation of the day, I used to stop and draw up my dahabiya to the bank of the river.

(I speak now of out-of-the-way places--free as yet from the canker of the tourist element--such as I habitually chose.) It was in the twilight at the hour when the stars began to shine out from the golden-green sky.