the delicate freshness of a white rose, once more her bosom began to
rise and fall.

She arose from the carpet on which Halil had laid her, and set to work
removing and re-arranging the scattered dishes and platters. Only after
a few moments had elapsed did she whisper to Halil, who could not
restrain his astonishment:

"And now you know why the Padishah ordered me to be sold like a common
slave in the bazaar. The instant a man embraces me I become as dead, and
remain so until he lets me go again, and his lips grow cold upon mine
and his heart abhors me. My name is not Gül-Bejáze, the White Rose, but
Gül-Olü, the Dead Rose."




CHAPTER III.

SULTAN ACHMED.


The sun is shining through the windows of the Seraglio, the two Ulemas
who are wont to come and pray with the Sultan have withdrawn, and the
Kapu-Agasi, or chief doorkeeper, and the Anakhtar Oglan, or chief
key-keeper, hasten to open the doors through which the Padishah
generally goes to his dressing-room, where already await him the most
eminent personages of the Court, to wit, the Khas-Oda-Bashi, or Master
of the Robes, the Chobodar who hands the Sultan his first garment, the
Dülbendar who ties the shawl round his body, the Berber-Bashi who shaves