long enough to such a tale he might easily get to feel as guilty as if
he had actually cast an eye into the Sultan's harem, and 'twere best for
him to die rather than do that."

"Is it not a tale that I am telling you? is not the room I have just
described to you but a creature of the imagination?--In the centre of
this saloon, then, was a large fountain, whence fragrant rose-water
ascended into the air sporting with the golden balls. Along the whole
length of the walls were immense Venetian mirrors, in which splendid
odalisks admired their own shapely limbs. Hundreds and hundreds of lamps
shone upon the pillars which supported the room--lamps of manifold
colours--which gave to the vast chamber the magic hues of a fairy
palace, and in the midst thereof seemed to float a transparent blue
cloud--it was the light smoke of ambergris and spices which the damsels
blew forth from their long narghilis. But what impressed Irene far more
than all this magnificence, was the figure of the Sultana Asseki, to
whom she was now conducted. A tall, muscular lady was sitting at the end
of the room on a raised divan. Her figure was slender round the waist
but broad and round about the shoulders. Her snow-white arms and neck
were encircled by rows of real pearls with diamond clasps. A lofty
heron's plume nodded on her bejewelled turban, and lent a still
haughtier aspect to that majestic form. With her large black eyes she
seemed to be in the habit of ruling the whole world."

"Yes, yes!" exclaimed Janaki, "you describe it all so vividly, that I am
half afraid of sitting down here and listening to you. You might at
least have let a little bit of a veil hang in front of her face."

"But this happened long, long ago, remember! Who can even say under what
Sultan it took place?... So they led the slave-girl into the presence