d, that I might endeavour to yield her such relief as was in
the power of our professional art. I thus limited my question to the
nature of her disease, in the expectation that she herself would clear
up the mystery which hung around the manner in which I was called, and
introduced to so extraordinary a scene as that which was now before me.
Her great weakness seemed to require some composure, and a collecting of
her scattered and reduced energies, before she could answer my simple
question. I now observed more perfectly than I had yet done the
character and style of the room into which I had been introduced--its
furniture, ornaments, and luxuries; and, above all, the extraordinary,
foreign-looking invalid who seemed to be the mistress of so much
grandeur. Though a bedroom, the apartment seemed to have had lavished
upon its fitting-up as much money as is often expended on a lord's
drawing-room--the bed itself, the wardrobes, pier-glasses, toilets,
and dressing-cases, being of the most elaborate workmanship and costly
character--the pictures numerous, and magnificently framed; while on all
sides were to be seen foreign ornaments, chiefly Chinese and Indian, of
brilliant appearance, and devoted to purposes and uses of refined luxury
of which I could form no adequate conception. On a small table, near the
bed, there was a multiplicity of boxes, vials, trinkets, and bijouterie
of all kinds; and fragrant mixtures, intended to perfume the apartment,
were exposed in various quarters, and even scattered exuberantly on
spread covers of satin, with a view to their yielding their sweets
more freely, and filling all the corners of the room. In full contrast
with all this array of grandeur and luxury, lay the strange-looking
individual already mentioned, on the gorgeous bed. She was apparently
an East Indian; and, though possessed of comely features, she was even
darker than the fair Hindoos we often see in this country. The sickness
under which she laboured, and which appeared to be very severe, had
rendered her thin and cadaverous-looking--making the balls of her
brilliant eyes assume the appearance of being protruded, and imparting
to all her features a sharp, prominent aspect, the very reverse of the
natural Indian type; yet, true to her sex and the manners of her
country, she was splendidly decorated, even in this state of dishabille
and distress; the coverlet being of rich Indian manufacture, and
resplendent with the dyes of the