Recalling Raymond's cynical insinuations, he could not
help fancying that the house had been built by a conscientious
genie with a view to the possibility of the lamp and the ring
passing, with other effects, into the hands of the sheriff.
Nevertheless, the servant who took Captain Carroll's horse summoned
another domestic, who preceded him into a small waiting-room off
the gorgeous central hall, which looked not unlike the private bar-
room of a first-class hotel, and presented him with a sherry
cobbler. It was a peculiarity of Aladdin's Palace that the host
seldom did the honors of his own house, but usually deputed the
task to some friend, and generally the last new-comer. Carroll was
consequently not surprised when he was presently joined by an utter
stranger, who again pressed upon him the refreshment he had just
declined. "You see," said the transitory host, "I'm a stranger
myself here, and haven't got the ways of the regular customers; but
call for anything you like, and I'll see it got for you. Jim" (the
actual Christian name of Aladdin) "is headin' a party through the
stables. Would you like to join 'em--they ain't more than half
through now--or will you come right to the billiard-room--the
latest thing out in stained glass and iron--ez pretty as fresh
paint? or will you meander along to the bridal suite, and see the
bamboo and silver dressing-room, and the white satin and crystal
bed that cost fifteen thousand dollars as it stands.
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