A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 100: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A QUEER RACE. 97 the rest, it had several high-pitched gables, and a wide porch with overhanging eaves. An open gallery ran round the building at the level of the upper story. Be- neath the gallery was a veranda, supported by wooden pillars and festooned with vines. A narrow path, winding between dwarf palm-trees and rhododendrons in full bearing, led up to the porch. Two or three young women, with mottled complexions, were sitting in the veranda. One was reading, another knitting, a third seemed to be spinning something with a distaff; but as I had never seen anybody spin with a distaff, I could not be quite sure. ‘These young women were all tall, well formed, and extremely graceful in their movements, for which their somewhat airy and easy- fitting garments offered every facility, and their sandaled feet were innocent of hose. After greeting them gravely and courteously (an ex- ample that Tom and I were careful to follow), Mr. Field inquired if ‘‘she” was in. On receiving an answer in the affirmative from the maiden who seemed to be most in authority, he requested her to announce him and .his companions, and asked whether it would please the queen to receive us. ‘The maiden bowed compliance, entered the house by the porch, and in two minutes came back fo say that her mistress had been waiting for us all the afternoon with the greatest impatience, and that we were to go in at once; whereupon our conductors, beckoning Tom and me to follow them, went in without further ceremony. The porch opened into a wide vestibule, at the end of which was a door. We crossed the vestibule together, and on reaching the door Mr. Field gave a sharp knock with his knuckles, «Come in!” answered a low and musical, yet, as | thought, a somewhat peremptory voice. ‘‘ After you,” said Field to me, opening the door. I obeyed him without hesitation, though not without trepidation, for my education in the etiquette of courts having been somewhat neglected, I had not the least idea what was the right thing to do in the circumstances— whether I should enter on bended knee, kiss the queen’s hand, speak first, or wait until I was spoken to. I had, moreover, an idea (one does get strange ideas sometimes} cComichboo O) <S (ee)