The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton. Volume IIBarrington, Russell, Mrs.
General
The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton. Volume II
Barrington, Russell, Mrs.
Leighton of Stretton, Frederic Leighton, Baron, 1830-1896
_Tuesday, 10th._--Sketched. A frequent companion in my work is
my friend, little Fatma, a sweet, small child of about five,
with a bright face and two rows of the whitest teeth ever seen.
She squats down snugly by my side, sometimes looking at the
picture, sometimes at the painter, most often at the paint-box,
at which she twiddles silently; sometimes she pensively draws a
pattern with a little brown finger on my dusty boots. I remember
at Rhodes, last year, a knot of little girls used to watch me
sketching in the Street of the Knights; but the little Turks
were not so nice as Fatma, the little Arab; some used to giggle,
and some used to frown at the Djiaour; but one very chatty young
lady of about six with the manners and graces of sixteen would
exclaim in a little fluty voice, "Mash Allah! Mash Allah!
beautiful indeed! nobody here can write like you!" (Turk., if my
memory helps me: _Guzel! guzel! Bir khimse burda senci zhibi
yazamas!_) I had a visit on board the other day from Mustafa
Aga's youngest son, bonny and rosy as an apple. He wore a
flowing robe of linen, _à ramages_, buttoned summarily and once
for all at the neck, but entirely open from the neck downwards;
over this an enormous embroidered jacket with anticipatory
sleeves turned up at the wrists, and on, or rather about, his
feet, a pair of his papa's shoes; he was irresistibly funny and
pretty; an _amorino_, dressed up as the Dog Toby. He was very
chatty; not so his playfellow, "Genani," the son of Abdallah,
the servant of Mustafa, a putto by Raphael modelled in
chocolate; a wild, black-eyed, trembling, romping, dusty,
stark-naked little imp (I used to call him Afreet), and the
finest child I ever saw. The nearest approach to social
intercourse I could get out of him was a sudden plunge at a
proffered cake; after which he would dart off with affected
dismay, and frown at me through an ill-suppressed grin from
behind the nearest place of safety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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