"
Hartley looked in the same direction with the two who were speaking, and
his eye was caught by a Semiramis-looking person, of unusual stature and
amplitude, arrayed in a sort of riding-habit, but so formed, and so
looped and gallooned with lace, as made it resemble the upper tunic of a
native chief. Her robe was composed of crimson silk, rich with flowers
of gold. She wore wide trowsers of light blue silk, a fine scarlet shawl
around her waist, in which was stuck a creeze with a richly ornamented
handle. Her throat and arms were loaded with chains and bracelets, and
her turban, formed of a shawl similar to that worn around her waist, was
decorated by a magnificent aigrette, from which a blue ostrich plume
flowed in one direction, and a red one in another. The brow, of European
complexion, on which this tiara rested, was too lofty for beauty, but
seemed made for command; the aquiline nose retained its form, but the
cheeks were a little sunken, and the complexion so very brilliant, as to
give strong evidence that the whole countenance had undergone a thorough
repair since the lady had left her couch. A black female slave, richly
dressed, stood behind her with a chowry, or cow's tail, having a silver
handle, which she used to keep off the flies. From the mode in which she
was addressed by those who spoke to her, this lady appeared a person of
too much importance to be affronted or neglected, and yet one with whom
none desired further communication than the occasion seemed in propriety
to demand.
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