Such as she was
the queen of Sheba would perhaps have been if scoured very bright and
pared shapely. Her name was Dilruba, which signifies, being
interpreted, "Heart-ravisher." She may have been seventeen or
eighteen; she was of a good height and elegantly proportioned, with a
well-set neck, sloping shoulders, and fine bust; and her carriage had
that stately and sylph-like grace which no words can depict, and which
is found nowhere on earth but among the Orientals. Her hands and feet
were exquisitely small and symmetrical. Her arms, which were bare
to the shoulder, displayed everything of fullness, rotundity and
lines of beauty that could be desired. Their hue and delicacy
of texture would have reminded a connoisseur of brownish satin.
Her waist, tight-cinctured, was--which is the highest praise--not
ultra-fashionable, and the undulations of her gauzy drapery disclosed,
as she receded, enough of ankle and crural adjacency to furnish hints
of improvement to most classical sculptors. Her lips, I regret to say,
were too liny, and not of the true ruby tint, but with the exception
of her mouth all her features were, not to say more, good. As to her
eyes, I should do injustice by any attempt to describe them. An object
must be susceptible of calm and dispassionate contemplation if one
would analyze it afterward without complete disaster.
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