At the gate of the Seraglio the Chief Mufti said to the Grand Vizier
sorrowfully:

"It had been better for us both had we never grown grey!"

But Sultan Achmed, accompanied by the Bostanjik, hastened to the gardens
of the grove of puspáng-trees to look at his tulips.




CHAPTER IV.

THE SLAVE OF THE SLAVE-GIRL.


Worthy Halil Patrona had become quite a by-word with his fellows. The
name he now went by in the bazaars was: The Slave of the Slave-Girl.
This did not hurt him in the least; on the contrary, the result was,
that more people came to smoke their chibooks and buy tobacco at his
shop than ever. Everybody was desirous of making the acquaintance of the
Mussulman who would not so much as lay a hand upon a slave-girl whom he
had bought with his own money, nay more, who did all the work of the
house instead of her, just as if she had bought him instead of his
buying her.

In the neighbourhood of Patrona dwelt Musli, a veteran Janissary, who
filled up his spare time by devoting himself to the art of
slipper-stitching. This man often beheld Halil prowling about on the
house-top in the moonlit nights where Gül-Bejáze was sleeping, and after