Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/331

 towards Buonaparte and the French during the siege of Acre. This the Emir denied, and averred that his great friend was Sir Sydney Smith: meaning, probably, as I observed from myself, to compliment his present guests at the expense of the absent French. "He was very civil to the two travellers," I added, "and, understanding they were going to see your ladyship, he sent his compliments to you."—"Ah!" replied she, "that looks as if he were fishing for friends, in ease he should shortly have to fly; for they say that Sherýf Pasha has been defeated in the Horàn, and the Emir begins to tremble; for the Druzes will not spare him."

I then told Lady Hester they had refused tea or coffee, but, as they were come from a distance, would probably like something more substantial: they had expressed, too, a wish for a glass of lemonade. Here Lady Hester, suddenly raising herself in her bed, interrupted me with "Good God!—lemonade! why, the maid said that the secretary had been to ask for some violet syrup for them: now, which is it they want? Can nobody ever take upon them to direct the simplest thing but they must blunder? must everything fall upon me?"—"Well, but," observed I, "lemonade, or violet syrup, it does not much matter which!"— "Not matter!—there it is again: and   then who is there can make lemonade?—not a soul