r devotion during the few months that you
have been in my service. Speak--is there aught that I can do to make you
happy? Have you relations or friends who need protection? If they be
poor, I will relieve their necessities."

"My lips cannot express the gratitude which my heart feels toward your
highness," returned the page, "but I have no friends in behalf of whom I
might supplicate the bounty of your highness."

"Are you yourself happy, Constantine?" asked Ibrahim.

"Happy in being permitted to attend upon your highness," was the reply,
delivered in a soft and tremulous tone.

"But is it in my power to render you happier?" demanded the grand
vizier.

Constantine hung down his head--reflected for a few moments, and then
murmured "Yes."

"Then, by Heaven!" exclaimed Ibrahim Pasha, "thou hast only to name thy
request, and it will be granted. I know not wherefore, but I am attached
to thee much. I feel interested in thy welfare, and I would be rejoiced
to minister to thy happiness."

"I am already happier than I was--happier, because my lips have drunk in
such words flowing from the lips of one who is exalted as highly as I am
insignificant and humble." said the page, in a voice tremulous with
emotion, but sweetly musical. "Yes, I am happier," he continued--"and
yet my soul is filled with the image of a dear, a well-beloved sister,
who pines in loneliness and solitude, ever dwelling on a hapless love
which she has formed for one who knows not that he is so loved, and who
perhaps may never--never know it."

"Ah, thou hast a sister, Constantine?" exclaimed the grand vizier. "And
is she as lovely as a sister of a youth so handsome as thou art ought to
be?"

"She has been assured by those who have sought her hand, that she is
indeed beautiful," answered Constantine. "But of what avail are her
charms, since he whom she loves may never whisper in her ear the
delicious words, 'I love thee in return.'"

"Does the object of her affections possess so obdurate a heart?"
inquired the grand vizier, strangely interested in the discourse of his
youthful page.

"It is not that he scorns my sister's love," replied Constantine; "but
it is that he knows not of its existence. It is true that he has seen
her once--yet 'twere probable that he remembers not there is such a
being in the world. Thus came it to pass, my lord--an officer, holding a
high rank in the service of his imperial majesty, the great Solyman, had
occasion to v