g when he was returning home with softened heart after
the recital of the joys and sorrows of his first love, Mirza-Schaffy's
attention had been arrested by a lovely maiden who, as he pushed
back his cap--solely, of course, to cool his heated brow--gave
incontestable evidences of being smitten with him. When he went to
his couch that night sleep refused to visit his eyelids, and as he
restlessly tossed to and fro, the image of Zuleikha haunting him with
reproachful mien, his thoughts turned ever to the peerless maiden who
menaced further fidelity to the old love. Ere morning dawned he had
resolved to break the spell, and for several days avoided the locality
of the fair enticer. But the attraction became finally too strong to
resist. He went, he saw the maiden, and she bestowed on him a glance
which rendered him her slave for life;

A wond'rous glance hath met my eyes:
The magic of this moment rare
Worketh for aye a fresh surprise,
A miracle beyond compare.

A question, therefore, ask I thee--
Pay heed, sweet life whom I adore--
Was that fond glance bestowed on me?
A token give, then, I implore.

And round thee could my strong arm cling,
Might I to thee life consecrate,
Loud jubilees my heart would sing,
And these to thee I'd dedicate.

The first interview presents decidedly a comical side. By a
confidential attendant Mirza-Schaffy was introduced on the roof
disguised in female costume, his face and flowing beard modestly
covered with a long veil. Luckily, he was not doomed long to such
undignified concealment, for he soon managed, through his beauty
and genius, to win favor in the eyes of the lady's mother, and she
promised to intercede in his behalf with the stern old father. The
latter, however, having eyes neither for beauty nor poetry, thought
only to demand what means of support the bold intruder had to offer
his daughter, and when he learned how small these were, withheld
his consent until the suitor could secure a professorship in some
institution of learning. Although loath to renounce his freedom,
Mirza-Schaffy determined for Hafisa's sake to make application, as he
had often been advised to do, at the Tiflis Gymnasium for the position
of teacher of Tartaric. But, alas! there was prepared for our poor
Mirza a humiliation second only to the bastinado. His reply was a
portentous document in the Russian language, of which he could not
read a word. Hafisa's father deman