Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/49

 at a marble wall as they may at me, but it will not hang. They are like the flies upon an artillery-horse's tail—there they ride, and ride, and buz about, and then there comes a great explosion; bom! and off they fly. I hate affectation of all kinds. I never could bear those ridiculous women who cannot step over a straw without expecting the man who is walking with them to offer his hand. I always said to the men, when they offered me their hand, 'No, no; I have got legs of my own, don't trouble yourselves.' Nobody pays so little attention to what are called punctilios as I do; but if any one piques me on my rank, and what is due to me, that's another thing: I can then show them who I am."

October 16.—These conversations filled up the mornings and evenings until the 16th of October, when I went to Mar Elias for a day. Whilst there, a peasant arrived with an ass-load of musk grapes and mukseysy grapes that Lady Hester had sent. An ass-load in those happy countries is but a proof of the abundance that reigns there. A bushel-basket of oranges or lemons, a bunch of fifty or sixty bananas, ten or twelve melons at a time, were presents of frequent occurrence.

October 18.—I returned to Jôon, and employed myself busily in fitting up the cottage intended for our dwelling. The nearer the time approached for bringing