On November 3, 1812, the doctor arrived at Nebk and cast about for Lascaris's house. Perceiving a little girl of twelve who was sauntering around him, he questioned her. She was the servant of those whom he was looking for, and was called Katinko, or Catherine. But her astonishing resemblance to Lascaris induced the doctor to think that she was rather his daughter. The chevalier appeared on his doorstep, dirty and wretched-looking, wearing an abaye of striped wool, wound round his body after the manner of the garments of Robin Hood, blue breeches in rather a melancholy condition, stockings and the red shoes worn by the peasants. His beard was long and thick. His wife retained little trace of beauty, which had disappeared, alas! not to return; the adorable Georgian girl had changed into the stout matron with masculine ways. They had arrived from Aleppo with bales of red cotton, which they hoped to exchange for money with the villagers of the neighbourhood. The doctor greatly enjoyed the conversation of Lascaris, whom his numerous travels had made a very well-informed and cultured man. He noted in him, however, a certain self-conceit, a certain sentiment of superiority which had no doubt been the sole cause of his disappointments. He appeared very embittered against Napoleon. Two days afterwards, an urgent message recalled the doctor to Damascus, where Barker had just fallen seriously ill. CHAPTER VII LADY HESTER AND LASCARIS WHEN the doctor arrived at Damascus, he found everything topsy-turvy. The commotion was extreme. The pacha's troops, already fully equipped, had been sent away, the guides dismissed, the caravan dispersed. Lady Hester announced publicly that she was postponing the journey, and, giving as pretexts Barker's illness, Bruce's weakness, and the advantage of the doctor's presence, decided to take only the road to Hama. She was not to arrive there directly. Unforeseen events had, in fact, occurred during the doctor's absence. Lady Hester, who had secretly written to Mahannah-el-Fadel, emir of the Anezes, received a visit from his son Nasr. Supple, slight, of insinuating and agreeable manners, the young sheik, his legs and feet bare, wrapped himself with dignity in an old sheepskin and in a ragged robe. But the orange and green keffiye shaded a haughty countenance with a sharp profile. The people of his suite were less elegant. Pierre--decidedly much more the cook than the prophet--composed a monster lunch in which Turkish and Arabic dishes alternated abundantly. The plum puddings particularly aroused the hilarity of the Bedouins, but they could not make up their minds to taste them. Lady Hester, astonished by the state of Nasr's wardrobe, presented him with a complete costume, of which he scattered immediately the articles about him, throwing down mantles and abayes with a magnificent ease, as though they had been refuse.