‘All indeed!’ cried the rest in chorus, bursting into laughter. Indian sex ‘Every one,’ said I, ‘or I will perish in the attempt.’ Maya was standing directly in front of me; she was about nineteen, and of that rarest type of Indian beauty, partly derived from South Indian blood. . … Was I not myself dreaming, or had I in truth been suddenly transported amid the houses of the seventh heaven? She happened to be standing on one of the silken cushions which, singly and in piles, were scattered about the room in profusion. It made her height just equal to my own. Her sighs of pleasure were not only echoed by my own, but by those of all the ladies gathered around us in sympathy. Then it occurred to me that I would like to hear from the lips of each the most interesting and voluptuous passage from their lives. ‘Every one,’ said I, ‘or I will perish in the attempt.’ Maya was standing directly in front of me; she was about nineteen, and of that rarest type of Indian beauty, partly derived from South Indian blood. PREFACE
Lord George Herbert is universally acknowledged to be the handsomest man in the English nobility. I now thought this isolated building was a seraglio and I resolved to trust the ladies, who would run even more risk
