Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/155

 wounded and houseless to be succoured, as after the siege of Acre, then I was not afraid of Ibrahim Pasha, or any of them. Well, I think that's all:" then, musing a little while, she added, "I ought, perhaps, to ask them to pass the night here; but, if I did, it would be all confusion: no dinner ready for them—and, before it could be, it would be midnight, for I must have a sheep killed: besides, it would be setting a bad example. There would be others then coming just at nightfall to get a supper and be off in the morning, as has happened more than once already. So now go, doctor, and" (ding, ding) "Fatôom! who is that woman that lodges strangers sometimes at Jôon?"—"Werdy, Sytty, the midwife."—"Ah! so; very well. Tell them, doctor, that they had better not think of going to Sayda to-night, as the gates will be shut; and that they will be nowhere better off for sleeping in all the village than at Werdy, the midwife's: for she has good beds and clean counterpanes: so now go."

I half rose to go, still hanging back, as knowing her ladyship would, as usual, have much more to say. "Oh! by the bye," she resumed, "if they inquire about me, and ask any questions, you may say that sometimes I am a great talker when subjects please me, and sometimes say very little if they do not. I am a character: what I do, or intend to do, nobody