ad been needed to make them thoroughly
popular, their near connection with the young man whose story was in
every one's mouth would alone have sufficed to surround them with
interest. The adventure was told with every conceivable variety of
detail, and Alexander was often called upon to settle disputes as to
what had happened to him. He was ready enough at all times to play the
chief part in a drawing-room, and delighted in being questioned by grave
old gentlemen, as well as by inquisitive young women. The women admired
him for his beauty, his grace and brilliancy, and especially for the
expression of his eyes, which they declared in a variety of languages to
be absolutely fascinating. The men were interested in his story, and
envied him the additional social success which he obtained as the hero
of so strange an adventure. Some people admired and praised his devotion
to his mother, which they said was most touching, whatever that may
mean. Others said that he had an angelic disposition, flavored by a dash
of the devil, which saved him from being goody; and this criticism of
his character conveyed some meaning to the minds of those who uttered
it. People have a strange way of talking about their favorites, and when
the praise they mean to bestow is not faint, the expression of it is apt
to be feeble and involved.

Pera is a gay place, for when a set of men and women are temporarily
exiled from their homes to a strange country, where they do not find the
society of a great capital, they naturally seek amusement and pursue it;
creating among themselves those pastimes which in the great European
cities others so often provide for them. Politically, also,
Constantinople is a very important place to most of the powers, who
choose their representatives for the post from among the cleverest men
they can find; and I will venture to say that there is scarcely a court
in the world where so many first-rate diplomatists are gathered together
as are to be met with among the missions to the Sublime Porte. Diplomacy
in Constantinople has preserved something of the character it had all
over the world fifty years ago. Personal influence is of far greater
importance when negotiations are to be undertaken with a half-civilized
form of administration, which is carried on chiefly by persons of
imperfect education, but of immense natural talent for intrigue. The
absence of an hereditary nobility in Turkey, and the extremely
democratic nature