" Upon the whole, it was his
opinion, from the specimens which they had heard, and which, he begged to
say, were the most tiresome part of the journey, that--whatever other
merits this well-dressed young gentleman might possess--poetry was by no
means his proper avocation; "and indeed," concluded the critic, "from his
fondness for flowers and for birds, I would venture to suggest that a
florist or a bird-catcher is a much more suitable calling for him than a
poet."
They had now begun to ascend those barren mountains, which separate
Cashmere from the rest of India; and, as the heats were intolerable, and
the time of their encampments limited to the few hours necessary for
refreshment and repose, there was an end to all their delightful evenings,
and LALLA ROOKH saw no more of FERAMORZ. She now felt that her short dream
of happiness was over, and that she had nothing but the recollection of
its few blissful hours, like the one draught of sweet water that serves
the camel across the wilderness, to be her heart's refreshment during the
dreary waste of life that was before her. The blight that had fallen upon
her spirits soon found its way to her cheek, and her ladies saw with
regret--though not without some suspicion of the cause--that the beauty of
their mistress, of which they were almost as proud as of their own, was
fast vanishing away at the very moment of all when she had most need of
it.
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