'I remember I made my heroines always wear turbans;
only conceive my horror when I found that a Turkish woman would as
soon think of putting my hat on as a turban, and that it was an
article of dress entirely confined to a Bond Street milliner.'
The evening passed in interesting and diverting conversation; of
course, principally contributed by the two travellers, who had seen so
much. Inspirited by his interview with Lady Annabel, and her gracious
reception of his overtures, Lord Cadurcis was in one of those frolic
humours, which we have before noticed was not unnatural to him. He had
considerable powers of mimicry, and the talent that had pictured to
Venetia in old days, with such liveliness, the habits of the old maids
of Morpeth, was now engaged on more considerable topics; an interview
with a pasha, a peep into a harem, a visit to a pirate's isle, the
slave-market, the bazaar, the barracks of the janissaries, all touched
with irresistible vitality, and coloured with the rich phrases of
unrivalled force of expression. The laughter was loud and continual;
even Lady Annabel joined zealously in the glee. As for Herbert, he
thought Cadurcis by far the most hearty and amusing person he had ever
known, and could not refrain from contrasting him with the picture
which his works and the report of the world had occasionally enabled
him to sketch to his mind's eye; the noble, young, and impassioned
bard, pouring forth the eloquent tide of his morbid feelings to an
idolising world, from whose applause he nevertheless turned with an
almost misanthropic melancholy.
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