In five minutes my new acquaintance had confided to me that they were sisters, and that a sweet little girl who sat between them was the only child of the younger one, and would be immensely rich; and had, in turn, inquired my country, and my relationship to my father, who stood aloof, lest he should annoy them; but whom they forthwith invited into the shade by the usual title given to all Franks:—“Gel, Capitan, Gel—Come, Captain, come”—while the daughter of the eldest lady, a pale, slight, dark-eyed houri, who was perfectly conscious of her extreme beauty, played off a thousand little coquettish airs to attract his attention. First she let the lower portion of her yashmac fall, to discover the prettiest mouth in the world; with, what is very unusual among the Turkish females, a fine set of teeth, which she displayed in a laugh of affected embarrassment at her awkwardness; and then, in her great haste to remedy the misfortune, she contrived to throw back her feridjhe, and disclose a throat and arms as dazzling as mountain snow; and a pair of delicate little hands, of which the nails were deeply stained with henna. I had seen several yashmacs adjusted in the harem, but I had never yet met with one which required so much arranging as this; and the young Hanoum was so persevering, and kept up such a soft little murmur of Turkish ejaculations, that I had time to take an excellent lesson in the difficult art of veiling. And all this within ten paces of one of the sentinels, who stood leaning cross-legged against the stock of his musket, according to the most approved system of Turkish discipline; and who did not interfere to remove the Frank strangers from the vicinity of the women, although a couple of years ago it would have perhaps subjected my father to temporary imprisonment, and certainly to insult. As we had already had sufficient experience of the slight attention which His Sublime Highness ever paid to time on public occasions, we felt no inclination to spend half the morning under a tree on the edge of a dusty road; and, having ascertained by the line of sentinels, that the procession would pass the Military College; we accordingly made a parting salutation to our new friends, and plunged once more into the hot sunshine. As we ascended the hill we came upon a squadron of the Imperial Guard, who were to form a portion of the shew, and who were lying comfortably in the dust, some asleep, and others nearly so; while the horses were huddled together in groups in the centre of the road? This was a portion of the corps which I mentioned in my account of the marriage festivities of the Princess Mihirmàh, and they certainly were considerably more like soldiers at a distance, than when seen thus on our very path.