After the inevitable coffee and cigarettes his son wandered out with us
and showed us the interesting parts of the town. Out of a big doorway
came two women in gorgeous clothes. They had been paying a morning call,
and bade farewell to their hostess. Doubtless they were mother and
daughter.
One was faded and beautiful; the younger was of the plump cream and
roses variety with modestly downcast eyes. Both wore enormous white lace
Mary Queen of Scots' veils, great baggy trousers made of stiff shiny
black stuff, which was gathered into hard gold embroidered pipes which
encased the ankles and upwards. These pipes were so stiff that they had
to walk with straight knees and feet far apart. Their full cavalier
coats were thickly covered with many kilometres of black braid sewn on
in curly patterns, and the girl wore at least a hundred golden coins
hung in semicircles on her chest.
They left the third woman at the door and walked back a few steps down
the road, then turned, and laying hand on breast, bowed ceremoniously,
first the mother, then the daughter, who never lifted her eyes; another
twenty steps and again the same performance; still once more, after
which they slowly waddled round the corner.
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