Taji from all further necessity of entertaining the Vowels. For at so
vulgar, and in Pimminee, so unwonted a sound, as a genuine laugh, the
three startled nymphs fainted away in a row, their round farthingales
falling over upon each other, like a file of empty tierces. But they
presently revived.

Meanwhile, without stirring from their mats, the polite young bucks in
the aigulettes did nothing but hold semi-transparent leaves to their
eyes, by the stems; which leaves they directed downward, toward the
disordered hems of the farthingales; in wait, perhaps, for the
revelation of an ankle, and its accompaniments. What the precise use
of these leaves could have been, it would be hard to say, especially
as the observers invariably peeped over and under them.

The calamity of the Vowels was soon followed by the breaking up of the
party; when, evening coming on, and feeling much wearied with the
labor of seeing company in Pimminee, we retired to our mats; there
finding that repose which ever awaits the fatigued.




CHAPTER XXVI
A Reception Day At Pimminee


Next morning, Nimni apprized us, that throughout the day he proposed
keeping open house, for the purpose of enabling us to behold whatever
of beauty, rank, and fashion, Pimminee could boast; including certain
strangers of note from various quarters of the lagoon, who doubtless