DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0323
306
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
that I must send a note to her ladyship, requesting
permission to present myself, and wait her pleas-
ure for an answer ; that sometimes she was rather
capricious, and that the English consul from Bey-
root had been obliged to wait two days. The
state of my health would not permit my waiting
anywhere upon an uncertainty. I was but one day
from Beyroot, where I looked for rest and med-
ical attendance; but I did not like to go past, and
I made my application perhaps with more regard
to my own convenience and feelings than the re-
spect due to those of the lady. My baggage, with
my writing materials, had not yet arrived. I had
no time to lose; the Arab agent gave me the best
he had; and writing a note about as "big as a
book" on a piece of coarse Arab paper with a
reed pen, and sealing it with a huge Arab wafer,
I gave it to a messenger, and tumbling him out of
the house, told him he must bring me an answer
before daylight the next morning. He probably
reached Lady Stanhope's residence about nine or
ten o'clock in the evening; and I have no doubt
he tumbled in, just as he had been tumbled out
t Sidon, and, demanding an immediate answer,
ie got one forthwith, " Her ladyship's compli-
nents," &c.; in short, somewhat like that which a
zlty lady gives from the head of the stairs, " I'm
not at home." I have since read M. de la Mar-
tine's account of his visit to her ladyship, by which
it appears that her ladyship had regard to the
phraseology of a note. Mine, as near as I can
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
that I must send a note to her ladyship, requesting
permission to present myself, and wait her pleas-
ure for an answer ; that sometimes she was rather
capricious, and that the English consul from Bey-
root had been obliged to wait two days. The
state of my health would not permit my waiting
anywhere upon an uncertainty. I was but one day
from Beyroot, where I looked for rest and med-
ical attendance; but I did not like to go past, and
I made my application perhaps with more regard
to my own convenience and feelings than the re-
spect due to those of the lady. My baggage, with
my writing materials, had not yet arrived. I had
no time to lose; the Arab agent gave me the best
he had; and writing a note about as "big as a
book" on a piece of coarse Arab paper with a
reed pen, and sealing it with a huge Arab wafer,
I gave it to a messenger, and tumbling him out of
the house, told him he must bring me an answer
before daylight the next morning. He probably
reached Lady Stanhope's residence about nine or
ten o'clock in the evening; and I have no doubt
he tumbled in, just as he had been tumbled out
t Sidon, and, demanding an immediate answer,
ie got one forthwith, " Her ladyship's compli-
nents," &c.; in short, somewhat like that which a
zlty lady gives from the head of the stairs, " I'm
not at home." I have since read M. de la Mar-
tine's account of his visit to her ladyship, by which
it appears that her ladyship had regard to the
phraseology of a note. Mine, as near as I can