I don't suppose you will be astonished at a curious encounter which has
just taken place.
I must tell you that in my uncle's character while in Paris,
Barbassou-Pasha, General in the Turkish cavalry, predominates over
Captain Barbassou the sailor. He takes a ride every morning, and I of
course accompany him. These are our occasions both for intimate talks
and for discussing serious questions; and I beg you to understand that
my uncle's notions upon the latter are by no means ordinary ones. He
adorns such questions with quite original views--views which are
certainly not the property of any other mortal known or likely to be
known in this world below. He starts a subject for me, and I give him
the cue as well as I can.
I know of nothing more instructive than to
follow his lines of argument--he has a separate one for each
subject--upon different departments of private and political life,
judged from his own standpoint. As a legislator I fancy he would commit
radical mistakes; but as a philosopher, I doubt very much if a match
could be found for him, for I don't think that his methods can be
compared with those of any existing school of thought.
The other morning we went to the forest of Mendon; my uncle, as a lover
of the picturesque, considers that the Bois de Boulogne, with its lake,
looks as if it had been taken out of a box of German toys. We arrived at
Villebon, a sort of farm situated in the middle of the forest, with a
few fields attached to it. There is a restaurant there, which is much
frequented on Sundays during the summer.
My uncle, enchanted with the place, wanted to stop and take his glass of
madeira there. So, leaving our horses in charge of a stable-boy, we went
into one of the rooms. At a table at the further end, quite a
stylish-looking woman, who looked as if she were out with somebody on
the spree, was sitting by herself, finishing a liqueur-ice, with her hat
off and lying by her side. Her figure, as viewed from the back, was
exquisite, with graceful and well-set shoulders, an elegantly poised
neck with a lovely little dimple on the nape, crowned by a luxuriant
chignon, from which emerged a profusion of rebellious tresses----.
"Waiter! Madeira, please!" shouted my uncle in his formidable bass
voice.
At this unexpected explosion, the strange lady jumped up from her chair
and looked suddenly round. But directly she saw the captain, she
screamed out and fainted away all at once.
I must do my uncle the justice of admitting that when he noticed the
remarkable effect he had produced, he exhibited a slight gesture of
surprise; which, however, soon passed off. Without calling any help, in
four strides he reached the lady's side, and supported her against the
table, raising up her pretty head which had fallen back, and slapping
her hands. Then, having satisfied himself that she had completely lost
consciousness, he began without any more ado to unfasten her dress, tore
open her collar, and, with admirable dexterity, unhooked the upper part
of her stays--thereby revealing to our gaze two charming globes,
imprisoned in lace.