5.
A week later, he took ship at Marseilles, with his court, to return to Cambodia. When I said good-bye to him on the deck of the steamer, he appeared heart-broken at having to leave our country. Heart-broken, too, seemed the little dancing-girls squatting at the foot of the mast, with their mechanical rabbits and their unbreakable dolls—the last keepsake to remind them of their stay in Paris—which they squeezed fondly in their arms.
When, at length, the hour of parting had struck, good King Sisowath, greatly moved, called me to his side:
"Here," he said. "Present for you."
And he handed me a parcel done up in a pink-silk handkerchief.
As soon as I was on shore, I hastened to open it; to my great confusion, it contained a splendid sampot made of fine cloth of gold. The King of Cambodia had presented me with his state breeches, which were all that remained to me of my last "client" and of my Oriental dreams!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In France, the premiership is very often held in conjunction with the portfolio of the Interior, or Home Office.—Translator's Note.
[2] The habit à la française, once a military cloak, now used purely for livery, is a heavily embroidered coat, similar to that of an English flunkey, but of a less voluminous cut and shorter.—Translator's Note.
[3] "Oho! An empress comes this way!"—Translator's Note.
[4] Jonkheer is a Dutch hereditary title of nobility, ranking below that of baron.—Translator's Note.
[5] The family of Dumonceau is of Belgian origin and derives from an ancestor in the parish of Saint-Géry, Brussels.—Translator's Note.
[6] Boniface of Savoy was nominated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, in 1241, by King Henry III of England, who had married Boniface's niece Eleanor, daughter of Raymond Berengar, Count of Provence, and Beatrix of Savoy.—Translator's Note.
[7] The late King of the Belgians shared the national peculiarity of interlarding his French with a succession of savez-vous.—Translator's Note.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
—Plain print and punctuation errors were corrected.
—All chapter headers are duplicated in original book. The transcriber has deleted one of each set as unnecessary.
—Table of Contents missing in original book; it has been produced and added by transcriber.
—Section header "1." at chapter IX missing in original book; it has been added by transcriber.