Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/53

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Lady Hester Stanhope.
39

until, one day, she, being in a good humour, said, "Doctor, it was I who ordered Osman to take away the bells. The people in this country must never suppose there is any one connected with my establishment who puts himself on an equality with me, no matter in what. The Turks know of only one Pasha in a district; the person next to him is a nobody in his presence, not daring even to sit down or to speak, unless told to do so. If I had let those bells hang much longer, the sound of my own would not have been attended to. As it is, half of my servants have become disobedient from seeing how my will is disputed by you and your family, who have always a hundred reasons for not doing what I wish to be done; and, as I said in my letter to Eugenia, I can't submit to render an account of my actions; for, if I was not called upon to do so by Mr. Pitt, I am sure I shan't by other people; so let us say no more about it." Of course, I complied with her whims; or rather, I should say, admitted the good sense of her observations: for I knew very well that she never did anything without a kind or substantial motive. So, after that, the exclamation of Gerass el Syt recovered its magical effect.

October 23.—I escorted my family to their new residence, which was called the Tamarisk Pavilion, from a tamarisk-tree that grew from the terrace.