beautiful hair that astonished them by its dark richness and
profusion as it fell about her fair neck. She who had unloosed the
new comer's hair, now fell to braiding it in solid masses and
plaiting it about her head.

A second one taking a rare bracelet of pearls off her own fair arms,
placed it upon the Circassian's, and sealed it there with a
kiss!--Another removed the leather shoes she wore, and replaced them
with satin ones of curious workmanship and richly wrought with
thread of gold, and still another loosened the coarse mantle that
enshrouded her shoulders, and covered her with a shawl that had come
across the desert from the far east, rich in texture and beautiful
as costly. And as another tossed a handful of fresh flowers into her
lap, the poor girl's cheeks became wet with tears, for their
unselfish kindness and generous tenderness had touched heart.

But these tokens were quickly brushed away and kisses took their
place, while fair and delicate hands were busy upon her, until the
poor slave who had so lately stood exposed in the open bazaar of the
capital, now saw among this family of the Turkish monarch, literally
as a star of the harem. In beauty, she did indeed outshine them all,
but they forgot this in the memory of her misfortune, and envied not
the dumb slave. They touched her fingers with henna dye, and
anointed her with rare and costly perfumes, seeming to vie with each
other in their interesting efforts to deck and beautify one who had
only the voluptuous softness of her dark eyes to thank them with,
for those lovely lips, of such tempting freshness in their coral
hue, could utter no sound.

They brought to her all their jewels and rich ornaments to amuse