om. But in Turkey such conveniences are a
secondary consideration. The rooms were freshly whitewashed, the board
floors were scrubbed, and the view from the windows was one of the most
beautiful in the world. A day spent in the bazaar did the rest. I picked
up a queer, wizened old Dalmatian cook, and with the help of my servant
was installed in the little place eight-and-forty hours after I had made
up my mind.

The life on the Bosphorus is totally different from that in Pera.
Everybody either keeps a horse or keeps a sail-boat, and many people do
both; for the Belgrade forest stretches five-and-twenty miles inland
from Buyukdere and Therapia, and the broad Bosphorus lies before,
widening into a deep bay between the two. The fresh northerly breeze
blows down from the Black Sea all day, and often all night; and there is
something invigorating in the air, which revives one after the long, gay
season in Pera, and makes one feel that anything and everything is
possible in such a place.

The forest was different in May from what it had been on that bitter
March night when Gregorios and I drove down to Laleli's house. The
maidam--the broad stretch of grass at the opening of the valley before
you reach the woods--was green and fresh and smooth. The trees were full
of leaves, and gypsies were already camping out for the season. The
woodland roads were not as full of riders as they are in July and
August, and the summer dancing had not yet begun, nor the garden
parties, nor any kind of gayety. There was peace everywhere,--the peace
of quiet spring weather before one learns to fear the sun and to long
for rain, when the crocus pushes its tender head timidly through the
grass, and the bold daisies gayly dance by millions in the light breeze
as though knowing that their numbers save them from being plucked up and
tied into nose-gays, and otherwise barbarously dealt with, according to
the luck of rarer flowers.

So we rode in the forest, and sailed on the Bosphorus, and enjoyed the
freedom of the life and the freshness of the cool air, and things went
on very pleasantly for every one, as far as outward appearances were
concerned. But it was soon clear to me that the matter which more or
less interested the whole party was no nearer to its termination than it
had been before. Paul came and went, and his face betrayed no emotion
when he met Hermione or parted from her. They were sometimes alone
together, but not often, and it did n