d brought to her in the hope that the princess would restore her
sight and power of movement.

The woman was seated astride an ass, which her husband led by the
bridle. On arriving, he took her in his arms, deposited her on a bench
near the door, and installed her on a heap of cushions with all the
solicitude of a mother for her child.

"You ought to be very fond of your husband," said the princess to the
blind woman.

"I should like to be able to see clearly," answered she. The princess
looked at the husband, he smiled sadly, but without any shadow of
ill-will.

"Poor woman," he remarked, passing the back of his hand over his eyes,
"her blindness renders her very unhappy. She cannot accustom herself to
it But you will give her back her sight, will you not, Bessadee?"

As the Princess Christina shook her head, and began to protest her
powerlessness, he plucked the skirt of her robe and made her a sign to
be silent.

"Have you any children?"

"Alas! I had one, but he died a long time ago."

"And how is it you have not taken another wife, as your law allows--a
strong and healthy woman who might have brought you children?"

"Ah, that is easily said; but this poor creature would have been sadly
vexed, and then I could not have been happy with another, not even if
she had brought me children. You see, Bessadee, we cannot have
everything in this world. I have a wife whom I have loved for nearly
forty years, and I shall make no second choice."

The man who spoke thus was a Turk. His wife was as much his property as
a piece of furniture; none of his neighbours would have blamed, no law
would have punished him, if he had got rid by any violent means of his
useless burden. Happily, the character of the Turkish people neutralizes
much of what is pernicious and odious in their customs and creed. They
possess at bottom a wonderful quality of goodness, of gentleness, of
simplicity, a remarkable instinct of reverence for that which is good
and beautiful, of respect for that which is weak. This instinct has
resisted, and will, let us hope, continue to resist, the influence of
injurious institutions founded exclusively upon individual selfishness
and the right of the strong hand. If you would understand the mildness
and the serenity which are natural to the Turk, you must observe the
peasant among his fields, or at the market, or on the threshold of a
cafe. Seedtime and harvest, the price of grain, the condition of his
fami