out a little later, for it got into Richard's room, and I found him, the
Russian Consul, and the Vicomte de Perrochel all sitting on the divan
with their legs well tucked under them, clutching their sticks, and
looking absurdly uncomfortable at the _affreuse bete_, as the Vicomte
called it.

I had had a tiring day, and was glad to go to the harim that night and
turn into my little room. But, alas! no sooner had I got in there than
about fifty women came to pay me a visit. By way of being gracious, I
had given a pair of earrings to the head wife of the Shaykh, and that
caused the most awful jealousy and quarrelling among them. I was dying
to go to bed, but they went on nagging at one another, until at last a
man, a husband or a brother, came of his own accord to tell them to take
leave, and upon their refusing he drove them all out of the room like a
flock of sheep. Fortunately I had a bolt to my door, so that I was able
to shut them out. My sleep, however, was very much disturbed, for they
kept on trying the doors and the shutters nearly all night. They have an
intense curiosity concerning European women, and during my toilet next
morning I could see fifty pairs of eyes at fifty chinks in the windows
and doors. It was really very embarrassing, because I could not tell the
sex of the eyes, though I imagined that they belonged to my visitors of
the night before. Dressing as I did __en Amazone_ seemed to afford them
infinite glee; and when I arrived at the cloth nether garments of my
riding-habit, they went into shrieks of laughter. However, I put a bold
face on it, and sallied forth to the square of the village, where I found
the rest of our party. Our horses were being led up and down by the
soldiers; our camels with water in goats' skins, and our baggage beasts,
our camp-followers, and our free-lances, were drawn up on one side. Omar
Beg accompanied us out of the village with a troop of cavalry, and
started us with forty dromedaries, each carrying two soldiers. The