f which they had a supreme command, and
which is, perhaps, our only match for Eastern repose. The Mesdemoiselles
de Laurella were highly accomplished, could sing quite ravishingly,
paint fruits and flowers, and drop to each other, before surrounding
savages, mysterious allusions to feats in ballrooms, which, alas! no
longer could be achieved. They signified, and in some degree solaced,
their intense disgust at their present position by a haughty and
amusingly impassable demeanour, which meant to convey their superiority
to all surrounding circumstances. One of their favourite modes of
asserting this pre-eminence was wearing the Frank dress, which their
father only did officially, and which no female member of their family
had ever assumed, though Damascus swarmed with Laurellas. Nothing in the
dreams of Madame Carson, or Madame Camille, or Madame Devey, nothing in
the blazoned pages of the Almanachs des Dames and Belle Assemblee, ever
approached the Mdlles. Laurella, on a day of festival. It was the acme.
Nothing could be conceived beyond it; nobody could equal it. It was
taste exaggerated, if that be possible; fashion baffling pursuit, if
that be permitted. It was a union of the highest moral and material
qualities; the most sublime contempt and the stiffest cambric. Figure to
yourself, in such habiliments, two girls, of the same features, the
same form, the same size, but of different colour: a nose turned up, but
choicely moulded, large eyes, and richly fringed; fine hair, beautiful
lips and teeth, but the upper lip and the cheek bones rather too long
and high, and the general expression of the countenance, when not
affected, more sprightly than intelligent. Therese was a brunette,
but her eye wanted softness as much as the blue orb of the brilliant
Sophonisbe. Nature and Art had combined to produce their figures, and it
was only the united effort of two such first-rate powers that could have
created anything so admirable.

This was the first visit of the Mesdemoiselles Laurella to the family
of Besso, for they had only returned from Marseilles at the beginning
of the year, and their host had not resided at Damascus until the summer
was much advanced. Of course they were well acquainted by reputation
with the great Hebrew house of which the lord of the mansion was the
chief. They had been brought up to esteem it the main strength and
ornament of their race and religion. But the Mesdemoiselles Laurella
were ashamed of