ement. Then he would return, and taking her hand,
place it upon his forehead and temples, and then curling his body
into a ball, lie motionless by her side.

"You love this young Circassian, and would leave me and your present
home for him?" asked the Sultan, as Komel entered the reception
saloon in answer to a summons he had sent to her.

"I do love him, excellency," replied the slave, honestly; "we were
children together, and I cannot remember the time when I loved him
not, for we were always as brother and sister."

"There are not many of thy nation, Komel, who would choose an humble
mountaineer to a Sultan," said the monarch, with a bitter intonation
of voice.

"Alas! excellency," she replied, "too many of my untutored
countrywomen, being brought up from their infancy to consider it as
their infallible lot, make a barter of their hearts for gold. Such
know no true promptings of love."

"You are happy and contented here, you want for nothing, you are the
mistress of this broad palace. Bid me send thy countryman away
loaded with gold, and we will live always together."

"Excellency, I am not happy here, and though I participate in all
the splendor you so liberally furnish for me, my heart, alas! is
ever straying back to my humble home."

"This feeling of discontent will soon die away, Komel, and you will
be happy again," said the Sultan, toying with her delicate hands
which had been tipped at the finger ends by the Nubian slaves with
the henna dye.

"Never, excellency, my early home and my heart will always be
together," she replied, with a sigh.

"Nevertheless, Komel," continued the Sultan in a decided tone of
voice, "you are my slave, and I love you. This being the case, think
you I shall be very ready to part with you?"

"Ah! excellency, you are too generous, too kind-hearted, to detain
me here against my wishes. I know this by the gentle and considerate
care I have already received at your hands."

"You mistake, you mistake," repeated the Sultan, earnestly; "that
was because I loved you so well, Komel. I saw in you, not only the
transparent beauty with which Heaven has endowed your race, but a
soul and intelligence that won my heart. Your infirmity, now so
suddenly removed, demanded for you every consideration, but now
aroused by the opposition that circumstances seem to have woven
around me, other feelings are fast becoming rooted in my breast.
Shall such as I am be thwarted in my wish by an humble