Begone! Give me a pipe; leave me alone, and tell me when
the meal is ready."
I thought by these means to put off the fair Puttee Rooge, and hoped to
be able to escape without subjecting myself to the examination of her
curious eyes. After smoking for a while, an attendant came to tell
me that my supper was prepared in the inner apartment of the tent
(I suppose that the reader, if he be possessed of the commonest
intelligence, knows that the tents of the Indian grandees are made of
the finest Cashmere shawls, and contain a dozen rooms at least, with
carpets, chimneys, and sash-windows complete). I entered, I say, into an
inner chamber, and there began with my fingers to devour my meal in the
Oriental fashion, taking, every now and then, a pull from the wine-jar,
which was cooling deliciously in another jar of snow.
I was just in the act of despatching the last morsel of a most savory
stewed lamb and rice, which had formed my meal, when I heard a scuffle
of feet, a shrill clatter of female voices, and, the curtain being flung
open, in marched a lady accompanied by twelve slaves, with moon faces
and slim waists, lovely as the houris in Paradise.
The lady herself, to do her justice, was as great a contrast to her
attendants as could possibly be: she was crooked, old, of the complexion
of molasses, and rendered a thousand times more ugly by the tawdry dress
and the blazing jewels with which she was covered.
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