her white hands and delicate fingers!
She was as delighted as a child when she could play the first chord.
"How much sometimes there is in the combination of the elementary
sounds," she cried.

"Lovely Gulhyndi," said Ali, "the holy seven tones have the same
heavenly relation, by nature, as the holy seven colours that beam to us
from the rainbow. All we see and hear is nothing but a repetition, and
the variation of these."

"Why, then, has the prophet forbidden music in the churches?" asked
Gulhyndi.

"The human voice," replied he, "is the noblest instrument, and the most
worthy of Omnipotence; the prophet considered it a duty that man should
offer the best to God. We, fair Gulhyndi, will not despise the music
of these chords in this earthly life, since it supports and elevates
our human voice, and connects man with nature."

The sun was now setting, and cast its last gleam over the wall into the
arbour. "Play and sing another song, as a farewell," said she. Ali
sang as follows:

"My tuneful strings your music swell,
And sweetly tell
The feelings words can never tell aright.
Resound! In you my joys should be expressed.
Soften that breast,
And breathe to spring my transports of delight.

"Sing, as the nightingale from some dark tree
Pours melody;
And bear along my feelings on your wings;
And let my thoughts like some fair streamlet flow,
In evening's glow,
When to far lands its gentle sound it brings.

"The thoughts for which all language is too weak,
The lyre can speak;
Although love's fetters have the tongue confined.
When love has come, repose gives place to pain,
And words are vain.
Notes have no words--yet is their sense divined."

After this Ali had frequent opportunities of seeing Gulhyndi. Once
finding her pale, and with her eyes red from weeping, he asked her with
sympathy: "Lovely Gulhyndi, what ails you?"

"I will and must tell you, Ali," said she; "when you have heard me you
will be convinced of the necessity I felt to seek your advice and
confidence. I have told you already that my nurse is a Christian. She
has endeavoured to convert me to the Christian faith; but the lessons
which my mother gave me in my childhood have always closed my heart
against her persuasions and proofs. Still she has often rendered me
most uneasy; and though unsuccessful in these endeavours to convert me
to her religion, has shaken my