pon your own state of mind, and upon your strength,
or rather upon the strength of your position. If Miss Carvel has
promised to marry you, I think you have a right to push matters as fast
as you can."

"I will," said Paul. "Good-by."

He left me at once, and I began to reflect upon what had passed. It
seemed to me that he was foolish and irrational, altogether unlike
himself. He had asked my advice upon a point in which his own judgment
would serve him better than mine, and it was contrary to his nature to
ask advice at all in such matters. He was evidently hard pressed and
unhappy, and I wished I could help him, but it was impossible. He was in
a dilemma from which he could issue only by his own efforts; and
although I was curious to see what he would do, I felt that I was not in
a position to suggest any very definite line of action. I looked idly
out of the window at the people who passed, and I began to wonder
whether even my curiosity to see the end could keep me much longer in
Pera. The crowd jostled and elbowed itself in the narrow way, as usual.
The fez, in every shade of red, and in every condition of newness,
shabbiness, and mediocrity, with tassel and without, rocked, swayed,
wagged, turned, and moved beneath my window till I grew sick of the
sight of it, and longed to see a turban, or a tall hat, or no hat at
all,--anything for a change of head-dress. I left the window rather
wearily, and took up one of the many novels which lay on the table,
pondering on the probable fate of Paul Patoff's love for his cousin.

XX.

Hermione found herself placed in quite as embarrassing a position as
Paul, and before long she began to feel that she had lost herself in a
sort of labyrinth of new sensations. She hardly trusted herself to think
or to reflect, so confusing were the questions which constantly
presented themselves to her mind. It seems an easy matter for a woman to
say, I love this man, or, I love that man, and to know that she speaks
truly in so saying. With some natures first love is a fact, a certainty
against which there is no appeal, and beside which there is no
alternative. To see, with them, is practically to love, and to love once
is to love forever. We may laugh over "love at first sight," as we call
it, but history and every-day life afford so many instances of its
reality that we cannot deny its existence. But the conditions in which
it is found are rare. To love each other at first sight,