Mary Gresley, and An Editor's TalesTrollope, Anthony
General
Mary Gresley, and An Editor's Tales
Trollope, Anthony
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
We were of course accommodated with two checked towels; and, having in
vain attempted to show that we were to the manner born by fastening the
larger of them satisfactorily round our own otherwise naked person, had
obtained the assistance of one of those very skilful eastern boys who
glide about the place and create envy by their familiarity with its
mysteries. With an absence of all bashfulness which soon grows upon one,
we had divested ourselves of our ordinary trappings beneath the gaze of
five or six young men lying on surrounding sofas,--among whom we
recognised young Walker of the Treasury, and hereby testify on his
behalf that he looks almost as fine a fellow without his clothes as he
does with them,--and had strutted through the doorway into the
bath-room, trailing our second towel behind us. Having observed the
matter closely in the course of perhaps half-a-dozen visits, we are
prepared to recommend that mode of entry to our young friends as being
at the same time easy and oriental. There are those who wear the second
towel as a shawl, thereby no doubt achieving a certain decency of garb;
but this is done to the utter loss of all dignity; and a feminine
appearance is produced, such as is sometimes that of a lady of fifty
looking after her maid-servants at seven o’clock in the morning and
intending to dress again before breakfast. And some there are who carry
it under the arm,--simply as a towel; but these are they who, from
English perversity, wilfully rob the institution of that picturesque
orientalism which should be its greatest charm. A few are able to wear
the article as a turban, and that no doubt should be done by all who are
competent to achieve the position. We have observed that men who can do
so enter the bath-room with an air and are received there with a respect
which no other arrangement of the towel will produce. We have tried
this; but as the turban gets over our eyes, and then falls altogether
off our brow, we have abandoned it. In regard to personal deportment,
depending partly on the step, somewhat on the eye, but chiefly on the
costume, it must be acknowledged that “the attempt and not the deed
confounds us.” It is not every man who can carry a blue towel as a
turban, and look like an Arab in the streets of Cairo, as he walks
slowly down the room in Jermyn Street with his arms crossed on his naked
breast. The attempt and not the deed does confound one shockingly. We,
therefore, recommend that the second towel should be trailed. The effect
is good, and there is no difficulty in the trailing which may not be
overcome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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