the character of his brother, and the probability of his becoming a
competitor, for what was essential to the happiness of his life.

But if the happiness of HAMET was lessened, the infelicity of ALMORAN
was increased. All the enjoyments that were in his power he neglected,
his attention being wholly fixed upon that which was beyond his reach;
he was impatient to see the beauty, who had taken intire possession of
his mind; and the probability that he would be obliged to resign her to
HAMET, tormented him with jealousy, envy, and indignation.

HAMET, however, did not long delay to fulfil his promise to his brother;
but having prepared ALMEIDA to receive him, he conducted him to her
apartment. The idea which ALMORAN had formed in his imagination, was
exceeded by the reality, and his passion was proportionably increased;
yet he found means not only to conceal it from HAMET, but from ALMEIDA,
by affecting an air of levity and merriment, which is not less
incompatible with the pleasures than the pains of love. After they had
been regaled with coffee and sherbet, they parted; and HAMET
congratulated himself, that his apprehensions of finding in ALMORAN a
rival for ALMEIDA'S love, were now at an end.

But ALMORAN, whose passions were become more violent by restraint, was
in a state of mind little better than distraction: one moment he
determined to seize upon the person of ALMEIDA in the night, and secrete
her in some place accessible only to himself; and the next to
assassinate his brother, that he might at once destroy a rival both in
empire and in love. But these designs were no sooner formed by his
wishes, than they were rejected by his fears: he was not ignorant, that
in any contest between him and HAMET, the voice of the public would be
against him; especially in a contest, in which it would appear, that