“Alphana is the daughter of a senator. If her mother’s life had been shorter than it was, I should not have been here. The immense wealth of the family was squandered by the old fool: and she left little or nothing to her four children, three boys and a girl, whose Toy I am, alas! to my great misfortune, and to be sure for my sins. How many indignities have I suffered! How many more still remain to be borne! The world said, that the cloister agreed very well with the fortune and figure of my mistress; but I found it did not suit with me: I preferred the military art to the monastic state, and I made my first campaigns under the Emir Azalaph. I perfected myself under the great Nangazaki. But the ingratitude of the service disgusted me, and made me quit the sword for the gown. Thus I am upon the point of belonging to a little scoundrel of a senator, quite bloated with his talents, his wit, his figure, his equipage, and his birth. I am now two hours in waiting for him. To be sure he will come, because his gentleman has apprized me, that when he comes, it is his madness to let people wait a long time.”
Alphana’s Toy was thus far advanced, when Hippomanes arrived. At the bustle of his train, and the caresses he bestowed on his favorite greyhound, Alphana awoke. “Oh! are you there, my queen?” says the little president. “ ’Tis very difficult to come at you. How do you like my little lodge; it is as good as some others, is it not?”
Alphana putting on a bashful, shy, distressed air, “as if we had never seen a private lodge before,” says her Toy, “and as if I had no share in her adventures,” cried out in a mournful manner. “My lord president, I take an unaccountable step for you. The passion that drags me to you must surely be very violent, since it shuts my eyes to the dangers which I incur. For what would the world say, if there was any suspicion of my being here?”
“You are right,” answered Hippomanes; “your proceeding is liable to misinterpretations. But you may rely on my discretion.”
“But,” replied Alphana, “I rely also on your conduct.”
“Oh! as to that,” says Hippomanes, “I shall be very modest: and how is it possible not to be as devote as an angel in a private lodge? In truth, you have a charming neck—”
“Ha’ done,” says Alphana, “you break your word already.”
“Not at all,” replies the president: “but you have not answered my question. What do you think of this furniture?” And then turning to his greyhound, “come hither, Folly, give me thy paw, my child. Folly is a good girl.—Will madam be pleased to take a turn in the garden? Let us walk on my terrace, it is a charming one. I am overlooked by some of my neighbours, but possibly they will not know you.—”
“My lord president, I am not curious,” says Alphana with an air of dudgeon. “I think we are better here.”
“Just as you please,” answers Hippomanes. “If you are tired, there is a bed. If you have the least inclination, I advise you to try it. Young Asteria, and little Phenice, who are great judges, assure me that it is a good one.” While Hippomanes was talking thus impertinently to Alphana, he pull’d off her gown by the sleeves, unlaced her stays, untied her petticoats, and disengaged her two clumsy feet from two little slippers.
When Alphana was almost naked, then did she perceive that Hippomanes was undressing her.—“What are you doing?” cried she quite surprised. “President, you don’t consider. I shall be angry in earnest.”
“Ah, my queen,” answered Hippomanes, “to be angry with a man who loves you as I do, would be such an oddity as you are not capable of. May I presume to entreat you to walk to this bed?”
“To this bed,” replied Alphana. “Ah! my lord president, you abuse my tenderness. I to go into a bed! I, into a bed!”
“No, no, my queen,” answered Hippomanes. “That is not the thing, who desires you to go to it. But you must, if you please, suffer yourself to be conducted to it: for you may easily conclude from your size, that I cannot be in the humor of carrying you to it.”—Nevertheless he grasped her about the waist, and making some efforts, “Oh how weighty she is,” says he. “But, my child, if you do not lend a helping hand, we shall never reach it.”
Alphana was sensible that he spoke truth, lent her assistance, compassed getting on her legs, advanced towards that bed, at which she had been so scared, partly on her own feet, and partly on the shoulders of Hippomanes, to whom she pantingly said: “Surely I must have been a great fool to come hither. I confided in your good conduct, and your extravagance is quite unreasonable.”
“Not at all,” answered the president, “not at all. You see that what I do is decent, very decent.”
’Tis probable that they said many other genteel things of this sort; but as the Sultan did not think proper to spend more time in attending their conversation, those things are lost to posterity. What a pity!
XXXIII
Sixteenth Trial of the Ring
The Petits-Maîtres.
Twice a week the favorite kept a drawing room. The preceding evening she
