It
came and sniffed at my hands, and then jumped up and put its paws on my
shoulder and smelt my face. "Oh," I thought, "if it takes a bit out of
my cheek, what shall I do?" But I stood as still as a statue, and tried
not to breathe, looking steadily in its eyes all the while. At last it
made up its mind to be friendly, jumped down, and ran before me into the
house. Here I found the lynx on the divan, which sprang at me, mewed,
and lashed its tail till Madame Omar came. She was a charming German
lady; but her husband kept her secluded in the harim like a Moslem woman.
She told me I had done quite the right thing with the hyena. If people
began to scream, it took a pleasure in frightening them. I found this
out a little later, for it got into Richard's room, and I found him, the
Russian Consul, and the Vicomte de Perrochel all sitting on the divan
with their legs well tucked under them, clutching their sticks, and
looking absurdly uncomfortable at the _affreuse bete_, as the Vicomte
called it.
I had had a tiring day, and was glad to go to the harim that night and
turn into my little room. But, alas! no sooner had I got in there than
about fifty women came to pay me a visit. By way of being gracious, I
had given a pair of earrings to the head wife of the Shaykh, and that
caused the most awful jealousy and quarrelling among them. I was dying
to go to bed, but they went on nagging at one another, until at last a
man, a husband or a brother, came of his own accord to tell them to take
leave, and upon their refusing he drove them all out of the room like a
flock of sheep.
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