DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0128
AN ENGLISH TRAVELLING LADY. 119
most attractive style of English beauty; she was
married, and therefore dead in law ; and as we
may say what we will of the dead, I venture to say-
that she had shone as a beauty and a belle in the
proudest circles of England, and was now enjoy-
ing more pleasure than Almack's or drawing-
rooms could give, rambling among ruins and sleep-
ing under a tent on the banks of the Nile. They had
travelled in Spain, had just come from Mount Sinai
and the Red Sea, and they talked of Bagdad. I
had often met on the Continent with Englishmen
who " were out," as they called it, for a certain
time, one year or two years, but this party had no
fixed time ; they "were out" for as long as suited
their humour. To them I am indebted for the
most interesting part of my journey in the East, for
they first suggested to me the route by Petra and
Arabia Petraea. We made a calculation by which
we hoped, in reference to what each had to do, to
meet at Cairo and make the attempt together. It
was a great exertion of resolution that I did not
abandon my own plans, and keep in company with
them, but they had too much time for me ; a month
or two was no object to them, but to me a very
great one.
All this and much more, including the expression
of a determination, when they had finished their
travels in the Old World, to visit us in the New,
took place, while we were dining under the tent
of the captain and his friend. The table stood in
the middle on canteens, about eight inches from
most attractive style of English beauty; she was
married, and therefore dead in law ; and as we
may say what we will of the dead, I venture to say-
that she had shone as a beauty and a belle in the
proudest circles of England, and was now enjoy-
ing more pleasure than Almack's or drawing-
rooms could give, rambling among ruins and sleep-
ing under a tent on the banks of the Nile. They had
travelled in Spain, had just come from Mount Sinai
and the Red Sea, and they talked of Bagdad. I
had often met on the Continent with Englishmen
who " were out," as they called it, for a certain
time, one year or two years, but this party had no
fixed time ; they "were out" for as long as suited
their humour. To them I am indebted for the
most interesting part of my journey in the East, for
they first suggested to me the route by Petra and
Arabia Petraea. We made a calculation by which
we hoped, in reference to what each had to do, to
meet at Cairo and make the attempt together. It
was a great exertion of resolution that I did not
abandon my own plans, and keep in company with
them, but they had too much time for me ; a month
or two was no object to them, but to me a very
great one.
All this and much more, including the expression
of a determination, when they had finished their
travels in the Old World, to visit us in the New,
took place, while we were dining under the tent
of the captain and his friend. The table stood in
the middle on canteens, about eight inches from