What a delightful pair of young ladies these two are, in this Orientalist illustration by Fernand-Anne Piestre Cormon:
I’ve been imagining the dialogue. As the master looks down at the girl at his feet, her friend pleads for him to be merciful.
“Very well,” he concedes, turning to the guard. “You may spare her life. Until this incident, she has served me well.”
But punished she must be: “Take her to the courtyard and whip her soundly. And then remove her from the palace. I suggest you take her to the slave market – there’ll be someone there looking for a well-trained girl to take as a wife, and if not, the brothelmasters will find good use for one so pretty.”
Of course, a more prosaic explanation could be that the one of the floor is sewing the one on the couch’s hem up.
Hahah, oh Eliane you make me giggle. (Which is bad because I have a horrible smoker’s cough).
Or else, the guard and the odalisque are taking turns at whipping her with a feather fan amd a length of ribbon!
Yep, my kind of whipping.
Yes, by all means taking this naughty lady to a whipping post. Tie her to it. Raise her dress, take down her bloomers, and lash her bare bottom painfully red.