Mrs.
Damer ought to have known better, as, during the last six weeks she had
never shown her face out of Shepheard's Hotel without being pestered
for backsheish; but she was tired and weak, and foolishly thought to
rid herself of the man who was annoying her.
No sooner had the coin dropped from her hand into that of the Arab,
than she was surrounded by a cluster of beggars, who loudly made their
petitions as though they would, each of them, individually be injured
if treated with less liberality than that first comer. They took hold
of her donkey, her bridle, her saddle, her legs, and at last her arms
and hands, screaming for backsheish in voices that were neither sweet
nor mild.
In her dismay she did give away sundry small coins--all, probably, that
she had about her; but this only made the matter worse. Money was
going, and each man, by sufficient energy, might hope to get some of
it. They were very energetic, and so frightened the poor lady that she
would certainly have fallen, had she not been kept on her seat by the
pressure around her.
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