Page:Eothen, or, Traces of travel brought home from the East by Kinglake, Alexander William.djvu/86

 their mistress as well as myself, with lighted tchibouques, and coffee.

The custom of the East sanctions, and almost commands some moments of silence whilst you are inhaling the first few breaths of the fragrant pipe; the pause was broken, I think, by my Lady, who addressed to me some inquiries respecting my mother, and particularly as to her marriage; but before I had communicated any great amount of family facts, the spirit of the Prophetess kindled within her, and presently (though with all the skill of a woman of the world) she shuffled away the subject of poor dear Somersetshire, and bounded onward into loftier spheres of thought.

My old acquaintance with some of "the twelve," enabled me to bear my part (of course a very humble one), in a conversation relative to occult science. Milnes once spread a report, that every gang of gipsies was found upon inquiry to have come last from a place to the westward, and to be about to make the next move in an eastern direction; either therefore they were to be all gathered together towards the rising of the sun, by the mysterious finger of Providence, or else they were to revolve round the globe for ever, and ever, and ever; both of these suppositions were highly gratifying, because they were both marvellous, and though the story on which they were founded plainly sprung from the inventive brain of a poet, no one had ever been so odiously statistical as to attempt a contradiction of it. I now mentioned the story as a report to Lady Hester Stanhope, and asked her if it were true; I could not have touched upon any imaginable subject more deeply interesting to my hearer—more closely akin to her habitual train of thinking; she immediately threw off all the restraint belonging to an interview with a stranger; and when she had received a few more similar proofs of my aptness for the marvellous, she went so far as to say, that she would adopt me as her "elève" in occult science.

For hours, and hours, this wondrous white woman poured forth her speech, for the most part concerning sacred and profane mysteries; but every now and then, she would stay her lofty flight, and swoop down upon the world again; whenever this happened, I was interested in her conversation.