hout learning how
to render the expression of his countenance such as at any moment to
belie the real state of his feelings. He did not, therefore, suffer the
spies and agents of the reis-effendi to perceive how deep an impression
their words had made upon him; but he said and looked enough to convince
them that the topics of their discourse would receive the most serious
consideration at his hands. His mind was already made up to accept the
overtures thus made to him; but he affected to hesitate, for he saw that
his services were ardently longed for, and he resolved to drive as
advantageous a bargain as possible.

He was one afternoon lounging through the principal bezestein or bazaar,
when he was struck by the elegant form, imposing air, and rich apparel
of a lady who rode slowly along upon a mule, attended by four female
slaves on foot. The outlines of her figure shaped the most admirable
symmetry he had ever beheld; and though her countenance was concealed by
a thick veil, in accordance with the custom of the East, yet he seemed
to have been impressed with an instinctive conviction that the face
beneath that invidious covering was eminently beautiful. Moreover, the
eyes whose glances flashed through the two holes which were formed in
the veil so as to permit the enjoyment of the faculty of sight, were
gloriously brilliant, yet black as jet. Once, too, when the lady raised
her delicate white hand, sparkling with jewels, to arrange the folds of
that hated veil, Alessandro caught a rapid, evanescent glimpse of a neck
as white as snow.

The little procession stopped at the door of a merchant's shop in the
bazaar; the slaves assisted the lady to dismount, and she entered the
warehouse, followed by her dependents, the mule being left in charge of
one of the numerous porters who thronged in the bezestein.

Alessandro lingered near the door, and he beheld the merchant displaying
various pieces of rich brocade before the eyes of the lady, who,
however, scrupulously retained the dense veil over her countenance.
Having made her purchases, which were taken charge of by one of the
slaves, the lady came forth again; and Alessandro, forgetting that his
lingering near now amounted to almost an act of rudeness, was chained to
the spot, lost in admiration of her elegant gesture, her graceful yet
dignified carriage, and the exquisite contour of her perfect shape. Her
feet and ankles, appearing beneath the full trousers, that were ga