The religious question I thought
might be put aside at once, for the excessive levity which the girl
had displayed proved clearly that in adopting Mahometanism she was
not quitting any other faith. Her mind must have been thoroughly
blank upon religious questions, and she was not, therefore, to be
treated as a Christian that had strayed from the flock, but rather
as a child without any religion at all, who was willing to conform
to the usages of those who would deck her with jewels, and clothe
her with cashmere shawls.
So much for the religious part of the question. Well, then, in a
merely temporal sense, it appeared to me that (looking merely to
the interests of the damsel, for I rather unjustly put poor
Menelaus quite out of the question) the advantages were all on the
side of the Mahometan match. The Sheik was in a much higher
station of life than the superseded husband, and had given the best
possible proof of his ardent affection by the sacrifices he had
made, and the risks he had incurred, for the sake of the beloved
object. I, therefore, stated fairly, to the horror and amazement
of all my hearers, that the Sheik, in my view, was likely to make a
most capital husband, and that I entirely "approved of the match.
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