tatuette, but only met, in a misty imaginative
world, the glance of two other eyes--the dark and beautiful eyes of
Karamaneh. In the exquisite tinting of a Chinese vase dimly perceptible
in the background of the shop, I perceived only the blushing cheeks
of Karamaneh; her face rose up, a taunting phantom, from out of the
darkness between a hideous, gilded idol and an Indian sandalwood screen.

I strove to dispel this obsessing thought, resolutely fixing my
attention upon a tall Etruscan vase in the corner of the window, near to
the shop door. Was I losing my senses indeed? A doubt of my own sanity
momentarily possessed me. For, struggle as I would to dispel the
illusion--there, looking out at me over that ancient piece of pottery,
was the bewitching face of the slave-girl!

Probably I was glaring madly, and possibly I attracted the notice of the
passers-by; but of this I cannot be certain, for all my attention was
centered upon that phantasmal face, with the cloudy hair, slightly
parted red lips, and the brilliant dark eyes which looked into mine out
of the shadows of the shop.

It was bewildering--it was uncanny; for, delusion or verity, the glamour
prevailed. I exerted a great mental effort, stepped to the door, turned
the handle, and entered the shop with as great a show of composure as I
could muster.

A curtain draped in a little door at the back of one counter swayed
slightly, with no greater violence than may have been occasioned by
the draught. But I fixed my eyes upon this swaying curtain almost
fiercely... as an impassive half-caste of some kind who appeared to be a
strange cross between a Graeco-Hebrew and a Japanese, entered and quite
unemotionally faced me, with a slight bow.

So wholly unexpected was this apparition that I started back.

"Can I show you anything, sir?" inquired the new arrival, with a second
slight inclination of the head.

I looked at him for a moment in silence. Then:

"I thought I saw a lady of my acquaintance here a moment ago," I said.
"Was I mistaken?"

"Quite mistaken, sir," replied the shopman, raising his black eyebrows
ever so slightly; "a mistake possibly due to a reflection in the window.
Will you take a look around now that you are here?"

"Thank you," I replied, staring him hard in the face; "at some other
time."

I turned and quitted the shop abruptly. Either I was mad, or Karamaneh
was concealed somewhere therein.

However, realizing my helplessness in the ma