'Ay, ay, Roxana', says the captain's wife; 'pray, sister, let's hear the story of Roxana; it will divert my lady, I'm sure.'
'That's a damned lie', said I to myself; 'if you knew how little 'twould divert me, you would have too much advantage over me.' Well, I saw no remedy, but the story must come on, so I prepared to hear the worst of it.
'Roxana!' says she, 'I know not what to say of her; she was so much above us, and so seldom seen, that we could know little of her but by report; but we did sometimes see her too; she was a charming woman indeed, and the footmen used to say that she was to be sent for to court.'
'To court! 'said I; 'why, she was at court, wasn't she? the Pall Mall is not far from Whitehall.' 'Yes, madam', says she, 'but I mean another way.'
'I understand thee', says the Quaker; 'thou meanest, I suppose, to be mistress to the king.' 'Yes, madam', said she.
I cannot help confessing what a reserve of pride still was left in me; and, though I dreaded the sequel of the story, yet when she talked how handsome and how fine a lady this Roxana was, I could not help being pleased and tickled with it, and put in questions two or three times of how handsome she was, and was she really so fine a woman as they talked of; and the like, on purpose to hear her repeat what the people's opinion of me was, and how I had behaved.
'Indeed', says she, at last, 'she was a most beautiful creature as ever I saw in my life.' 'But then', said I, 'you never had the opportunity to see her but when she was set out to the best advantage.'
'Yes, yes, madam', says she, 'I have seen her several times in her dishabille. And I can assure you, she was a very fine woman; and that which was more still, everybody said she did not paint.'
This was still agreeable to me one way; but there was a devilish sting in the tail of it all, and this last article was one; wherein she said she had seen me several times in my dishabille. This put me in mind that then she must certainly know me, and it would come out at last; which was death to me but to think of.
'Well, but, sister', says the captain's wife, 'tell my lady about the ball; that's the best of all the story; and of Roxana's dancing in a fine outlandish dress.'
'That's one of the brightest parts of her story, indeed' says the girl. 'The case was this: we had balls and meetings in her ladyship's apartments every week almost; but one time my lady invited all the nobles to come such a time, and she would give them a ball; and there was a vast crowd indeed', says she.
'I think you said the king was there, sister, didn't you?'
'No, madam', says she, 'that was the second time, when they said the king had heard how finely the Turkish lady danced, and that he was there to see her; but the king, if his Majesty was there, came disguised.'
'That is what they call incog.' says my friend the Quaker; 'thou canst not think the king would disguise himself 'Yes', says the girl, 'it was so; he did not come in public with his guards, but we all knew which was the king well enough, that is to say, which they said was the king.'
'Well', says the captain's wife, 'about the Turkish dress; pray let us hear that.' 'Why', says she, 'my lady sat in a fine little drawing-room, which opened into the great room, and where she received the compliments
