ame in sight of each other, an unconcerned
bystander would have been amused with their first glances--he, the
bridegroom, endeavouring to discover what he was about to espouse--she,
the bride, making play with her veil in such an artful manner as to
induce his belief that it concealed celestial charms. But I was too
deeply interested in the game to make it matter of amusement. Besides,
more than once, a certain fifty ducats that had formerly belonged to
Osman, and which I had appropriated to my own use, came into my mind,
and made me fear that it also might have a place in his: 'and if,' said
I, 'he gets displeased and angry, who knows what ashes may not fall upon
my head!'

However, they were married; and I believe most truly that he did not
succeed in getting one glimpse of his intended until I had pronounced
the awful words, 'I agree'; when in his impatience he partly pulled her
veil on one side, and I need not say that he was far from fainting with
delight.

As soon as he was well satisfied that his charmer was not a Zuleikha, he
called me to him, and said, 'Hajji, I thought that youth, at least, she
would have possessed; but she is more wrinkled than any camel. How is
this?'

I got out of the scrape as well as I was able, by assuring him that
she had once been the flower of the royal harem, and reminded him that
nothing had so much to do with marriage as destiny.

'Ah! that destiny', said he, 'is an answer for everything; but be its
effects what it may, it can no more make an old hag a young woman, than
it can make one and one three.'

Sorely did I fear that he would return his bargain upon our hands; but
when he found that it was impossible to expect anything better in
a muti, a class of females, who generally were the refuse of
womankind,--old widows, and deserted wives; and who, rather than
live under the opprobrium that single life entails in our Mahomedan
countries, would put up with anything that came under the denomination
of husband, he agreed to take her to his home. I expected, like a hungry
hawk, who, the instant he is unhooded, pounces upon his prey, that Osman
as soon as he had got a sight of his charmer, would have carried her off
with impatience; but I was disappointed. He walked leisurely on to
his room in the caravanserai, and told her that she might follow him
whenever it suited her convenience.

[Illustration: The degradation of Hajji and the mollah. 30.jpg]

CHAPTER LVI

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