The two
Queens, the nobles and the people vied with each other in doing
us honour and showering gifts upon us. As for that painful little
incident of the hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were
quite content to leave it. Every day deputations and individuals
waited on us to examine our guns and clothing, our chain shirts,
and our instruments, especially our watches, with which they
were much delighted. In short, we became quite the rage, so
much so that some of the fashionable young swells among the Zu-Vendi
began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir Henry's
shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us
and, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion.
This deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to those
who generally came to visit us. They were little insignificant
men of an excessively polite, not to say servile, demeanour;
and their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observing
the details of Good's full-dress uniform, of which they took
copious notes and measurements. Good was much flattered at the
time, not suspecting that he had to deal with the six leading
tailors of Milosis. A fortnight afterwards, however, when on
attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven
or eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a very
fair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind.
Pages:
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277