as to me?"

"Do you not recollect that I left you at the hotel for a short time,
after our arrival? I accompanied my friend hither, and received from him
the clue to these magic apartments. This is a bathing-room," said he,
opening one, where a marble bath and ewer, and every luxurious appliance
reminded one of Eastern luxury. Even the air had a soft languor in it,
as if perfumed breaths had mingled there.

"I should like to see the former mistress of this palace," said I,
gazing round with a bewildered smile; "she was probably some magnificent
Eastern sultana who reclined under that royal canopy, and received
sherbet from the hands of kneeling slaves. She little dreamed of the
rustic successor who would tread her marble halls, and revel in the
luxuries prepared for her."

"She was a very elegant and intellectual woman, I am told," replied
Ernest, "who accompanied her husband in his travels, and assisted him in
every enterprise, by the energy of her mind and the constancy of her
heart, and whose exquisite taste directed the formation of this graceful
structure. She painted the frescos on the ceiling of the boudoir, and
that richly tinted picture of an Italian sunset is the work of her hand.
This house and its decorations are not as costly as many others in this
city, but it has such an air of Asiatic magnificence it produces an
illusion on the eye. I wish, myself, it was not quite so showy, but it
makes such a charming contrast to the simplicity and freshness of your
character I cannot wish it otherwise."

"I fear I shall be spoiled. I shall imagine myself one of those
dark-eyed houris, who dwell in the bowers of paradise and welcome the
souls of the brave."

"That is no inappropriate comparison," said he; "but you must not
believe me an Eastern satrap, Gabriella, who dares not enter his wife's
apartment without seeing the signal of admittance at the door. Here is
another room opening into this; and pressing a spring, a part of the
dividing walls slid back, revealing an apartment of similar dimensions,
and furnished with equal elegance.

"This," added he, "was arranged by the master of the mansion for his own
accommodation. Here is his library, which seems a mass of burnished
gold, from the splendid binding of the books. By certain secret springs
the light can be so graduated in this room, that you can vary it from
the softest twilight to the full blaze of day."

"The Arabian Nights dramatized!" I exclaimed. "I