{21}
Lady Hester seems to have heartily despised everything approaching
to exquisiteness. She told me, by-the-bye (and her opinion upon
that subject is worth having), that a downright manner, amounting
even to brusqueness, is more effective than any other with the
Oriental; and that amongst the English of all ranks and all classes
there is no man so attractive to the Orientals, no man who can
negotiate with them half so effectively, as a good, honest, open-
hearted, and positive naval officer of the old school.
I have told you, I think, that Lady Hester could deal fiercely with
those she hated. One man above all others (he is now uprooted from
society, and cast away for ever) she blasted with her wrath. You
would have thought that in the scornfulness of her nature she must
have sprung upon her foe with more of fierceness than of skill; but
this was not so, for with all the force and vehemence of her
invective she displayed a sober, patient, and minute attention to
the details of vituperation, which contributed to its success a
thousand times more than mere violence.
During the hours that this sort of conversation, or rather
discourse, was going on our tchibouques were from time to time
replenished, and the lady as well as I continued to smoke with
little or no intermission till the interview ended. I think that
the fragrant fumes of the latakiah must have helped to keep me on
my good behaviour as a patient disciple of the prophetess.
It was not till after midnight that my visit for the evening came
to an end. When I quitted my seat the lady rose and stood up in
the same formal attitude (almost that of a soldier in a state of
"attention") which she had assumed at my entrance; at the same time
she let go the drapery which she had held over her lap whilst
sitting and allowed it to fall to the ground.
The next morning after breakfast I was visited by my lady's
secretary - the only European, except the doctor, whom she retained
in her household. This secretary, like the doctor, was Italian,
but he preserved more signs of European dress and European
pretensions than his medical fellow-slave. He spoke little or no
English, though he wrote it pretty well, having been formerly
employed in a mercantile house connected with England. The poor
fellow was in an unhappy state of mind. In order to make you
understand the extent of his spiritual anxieties, I ought to have
told you that the doctor {22} (who had sunk into the complete
Asiatic, and had condescended accordingly to the performance of
even menial services) had adopted the common faith of all the
neighbouring people, and had become a firm and happy believer in
the divine power of his mistress.
