a very graceful and courteous one, and which is
extended to all ladies, whether attended by a
cavalier or not.

The reception-rooms, of which there seemed
to be at least six or seven, were all on the ground
floor, and most of them were of splendid proportions;
the floors were made of a sort of coarse
scagliola, in patterns, and some of the walls and
ceilings were rather prettily painted. A profusion
of brilliant Egyptian flowers in great vases added
much to the gaiety of the coup d'Å“il; but,
conspicuous among all, blazed whole branches of
the gorgeous pointsetias, which in the count's
garden were particularly fine.

This fête was especially interesting to me, as
being composed almost exclusively of the foreign
society of Alexandria, and notably of the
Levantine element, which English people have but
few opportunities of encountering. With the
exception of our consul-general, his secretary,
and one or two others, beside our own party of
three, I believe there were no English present.
Having paid our respects to the mistress of the
house, we were placed on a sofa at the upper end
of the chief reception-room. As dancing had
hardly commenced, we had time to look about us,
and to note the guests who were still flocking in,
and the ladies ranged in a circle round the room.
These, to my disappointment, all wore ordinary
European costume, which was neither fresh, nor
in good taste, nor gracefully worn; the only
exception was in the instance of one little very
old lady who sat in a bundle in the corner; in
such a bundle that you could hardly tell in what
fashion her dark silk dress was made, and could
only distinguish that her head was covered with
the silken skull-cap, bound round, turban-wise,
with a small handkerchief, that forms the
ordinary Levantine head-dress. But the younger
women, when full dressed, dress their hair with
elaborate complications, into which enter a
quantity of natural flowers of every kind and
hue.

I have been in many parts of the world. I
have seen on their own ground all sorts of
women, from the radiant daughters of "all the
Howards" to the dusky North American
squaws. But such fat women, and so many
fat women, I never saw in any land as those
Levantine ladies there assembled. Talk of
Turkish women, fattened like crammed turkeys!
The harems boast much flesh. You see in their
narrow precincts many plump faces and redundant
busts ill contained by the loose garment that
covers them; many sturdy legs and pudsey hands.
But what are all those beside the vast proportions
of these "fat-fleshed" fair ones? While
girls are yet in their teens the doom begins to
fall on them. The commencement is far from
objectionable. It is agreeable to see well-
rounded arms and shoulders that you are
"tempted to pat" at the so often lean ages of
fifteen and sixteen. These are almost always
accompanied by, item, a pair of long dark almond
eyes, "put in with a dirty finger," as Lady
Morgan writes; eyes that alternately flash and
languish at the owner's command, and that are
shaded by thick black straight brows, not
unfrequeutly adopting the very doubtful

charm of married brows,

item, dense heaps of black coarse wavy hair,
that lies on the head and on the neck in the
massive way you see depicted in old Egyptian
paintings; and sometimes, though rarely, you
see fine complexions.

So far, so good; except that these damsels
look like comely matrons, or " fine girls" who
have flirted through some ten or twelve seasons,
and having has yet not found any of the first-
class matches sufficiently appreciative of their
charms, are becoming condescending, nay, even
encouraging, to the second class. But now turn
to the mothers. We have just been rather
admiring a plump short-necked damsel with
bright eyes and rosy cheeks and dimpling smiles,
looking like a cherubim prolonged. There
is her mother sitting opposite—look on this
picture and on that—and see the full-blown
rose whose bud we have just been
contemplating.

She can hardly be forty, and her smooth face
yet bears traces of considerable comeliness. But
the bright dark eyes are embedded in fat, the
nose is sunk and lost in fat, the smiling mouth
is buried in fat. Of neck there is no symptom:
the head rests behind on a hump of fat; before,
on a protuberance like the crop of a pouter
pigeon. Her arms! Poor soul! Yet she does
not seem to mind it; there she sits, smiling
benignly, the picture of serene contentment;
and, except that the frequent exercise of her fan
hints that the "too solid flesh" does manifest
a disposition to "melt," even in the pleasant
and by no means high temperature of the
spacious airy and not over-crowded rooms, her
condition seems in no wise distressful to her.

I walked about the rooms. There was no
regular supper, but fruits, cakes, ices, and other
refreshments, abundantly intermingled with
flowers, were laid out in one of them. A few of
the men wore Eastern costume, but they were
quite the exception. Some of the young Greeks
—who showed none of the tendency to obesity
so strongly developed in their mothers and
sisters, but were generally spare, oval-faced, and
olive-complexioned, and had heads of compact
black frizzy hair like the women—seemed to
dance rather well and to bear themselves
correctly. Not so many of the damsels. I saw
some convert the sober monotony of the
uninteresting quadrille into a very jolly game, nearly
approaching to a romp. How they skipped and
giggled, and swung hands and beckoned and
gambolled, until their at first by no means fresh
toilettes became mere chiffons, and the flowers
tumbled out of their hair, it boots not now to
tell. Suffice is to say, that the presence of Mr.
Turveydrop, with a few hints from that
accomplished reflexion of the first gentleman in
Europe on the subject of Deportment, would
have been remarkably à propos.

Soon after twelve the rooms began to thin a
little, and we left at about half-past, much