“Merciful Mussulmans!  Lo!  I bring hither from the harem of his Majesty the Sultan, an odalisk, who is to be put up to public auction by command of the Padishah.  The name of this odalisk is Guel-Bejaze; her age is seventeen years, she has all her teeth, her breath is pure, her skin is clean, her hair is thick, she can dance and sing, and do all manner of woman’s handiwork.  His shall she be who makes the highest bid, and the sum obtained is to be divided among the dervishes.  Two thousand piastres have already been promised for her; come hither and examine her—­whoever gives the most shall have her.”

“Allah preserve us from the thought of purchasing this girl,” observed the wiser of the merchants, “why that would be the same thing as purchasing the wrath of the Padishah for hard cash,” and they wisely withdrew into the interiors of their booths.  They knew well enough what was likely to happen to the man who presumed to buy an odalisk who had been expelled from the harem of the Sultan.  Anyone daring to do such a thing might just as well chalk up the names of the four avenging angels on the walls of his house, or trample on his talisman with his slippers straight away.  It was not the act of a wise man to pick up a flower which the Sultan had thrown away in order to inhale its fragrance.

The public crier remained in the middle of the bazaar alone with the slave-girl; the chapmen had not only retired into their shops but barred the doors behind them.  “Much obliged to you; but we would not accept such a piece of good luck even as a gift,” they seemed to say.

Only one man still remained in front of his shop, and that was Halil Patrona.  He alone had the courage to scrutinise the slave-girl carefully.

Perchance he felt compassion for this slave.  He could not but perceive how the poor thing was trembling beneath the veil which covered her to the very heels.  Nothing could be seen of her but her eyes, and in those eyes a tear was visible.

“Come! bring her into my shop!” said Halil to the public crier; “don’t leave her out in the public square there for everybody to stare at her.”

“Impossible!” replied the public crier.  “As I value my head I must obey my orders, and my orders are to take her veil from off her head in the auction-yard, where the ordinary slaves are wont to be offered for sale, and there announce the price set upon her in the sight and hearing of all men.”

“What crime has this slave-girl committed that she should be treated so scurvily?”

“Halil Patrona!” answered the public crier, “it will be all the better for my tongue and your ears if I do not answer that question.  I simply do what I have been told to do.  I unveil this odalisk, I proclaim what she can do, to what use she can be put.  I neither belittle her nor do I exalt her.  I advise nobody to buy her and I advise nobody not to buy her.  Allah is free to do what He will with us all, and that which has been decreed concerning each of us ages ago must needs befall.”  And with these words he whisked away the veil from the head of the odalisk.