The sacrifice which I have made of your acquaintance and your society, that you might stand quite clear of everything that affects me, appears to be to little purpose. You will have some very disagreeable business to go through, as you will be made Colonel Campbell’s honourable agent, and he the agent of the wise Lord Palmerston, and he the agent of your magnificent Queen. There is Colonel Campbell’s answer, which I leave open for your perusal, as he did his.
If in the end I find that you deserve the name of a true Scotchman, I shall never take ill the part that you may have taken against me, as it appears to be consistent with your duty in these dirty times.
I remain with truth and regard, yours,
Hester Lucy Stanhope.
Besides these letters, I wrote others for England and for Beyrout—in all about a dozen. What with waiting and listening to her conversation, I was with her five hours before dinner and five hours after. I had to seal and put covers to all these; and just at the moment when I was about to retire to my study, a little room set apart for me in her house, to do this, Lady Hester stopped me, and returned to the subject of the silver spoon. After some consideration, she recommended also the use of the korbàsh.[31]
“How am I to live,” cried she, “with thirty servants in my house, and such a man as you are that can’t say boh! to a goose? How do you expect they will mind me, if you don’t keep them under? Hamâady is coming to-morrow to Jôon: he must be sent for, and shall interrogate the rascal; I warrant you, he’ll soon bring it to light.”
When I left her for dinner, she had said to me, “Send me word a quarter of an hour before you return to say you are coming.” This, in my hurry to get through so much writing for her, I had neglected to do; and it, therefore, served now as the text for a new grievance. “Didn’t I say,” she asked me, “let me know a quarter of an hour beforehand when you are ready to come to me? that quarter of an hour was everything to me: I wished to have more candles brought in on account of your eyes, to have the paper and ink got ready, and to collect my thoughts; but no! everybody must do as they like, and poor I be made the sacrifice.—I will live by the rule of grandeur.”
Then she called her maids in, one after another, poured on them a torrent of abuse for their laziness, dirt, and insolence. My heart sickened to think what would be the consequence of all this to herself; for I knew very well that her whole frame, the next morning, would be debilitated from such excitement: yet all this time her passion was sublimely eloquent, and, sick though she was, terrible. Her maids tumbled over each other from fright, and the thunder that rolled in the sky (for a storm was raging at the time) was but a faint likeness of her paroxysm. When it was over, we drank tea, and at half-past one separated for the night.
February 5. The weather was still stormy. Snow fell in abundance on the higher chains of Mount Lebanon, where it lay apparently very thick.