“By the Prophet! a beauteous maid indeed!  What eyes!  A man might fancy they could speak, and if one gazed at them long enough one could find more to learn there than in all that is written in the Koran!  What lips too!  I would gladly remain outside Paradise if by so doing I might gaze upon those lips for ever.  And what a pale face!  Well does she deserve the name of Guel-Bejaze!  Her cheeks do indeed resemble white roses!  And one can see dewdrops upon them, as is the way with roses!—­the dewdrops from her eyes!  And what must such eyes be like when they laugh?  What must that face be like when it blushes?  What must that mouth be like when it speaks, when it sighs, when it trembles with sweet desire?”

Halil Patrona was quite carried away by his enthusiasm.

“Carry her not any further,” he said to the public crier, “and show her to nobody else, for nobody else would dare to buy her.  Besides, I’ll give you for her a sum which nobody else would think of offering, I will give five thousand piastres.”

“Be it so!” said the crier, veiling the maid anew; “you have seen her, anyhow, bring your money and take the girl!”

Halil went in for his purse, handed it over to the crier (it held the exact amount to a penny), and took the odalisk by the hand—­there she stood alone with him.

Halil Patrona now lost not a moment in locking up his shop, and taking the odalisk by the hand led her away with him to his poor lonely dwelling-place.

All the way thither the girl never uttered a word.

On reaching the house Halil made the girl sit down by the hearth, and then addressed her in a tender, kindly voice.

“Here is my house, whatever you see in it is mine and yours.  The whole lot is not very much it is true, but it is all our own.  You will find no ornaments or frankincense in my house, but you can go in and out of it as you please without asking anybody’s leave.  Here are two piastres, provide therewith a dinner for us both.”

The worthy Mussulman then returned to the bazaar, leaving the girl alone in the house.  He did not return home till the evening.

Meanwhile Guel-Bejaze had made the two piastres go as far as they could, and had supper all ready for him.  She placed Halil’s dish on the reed-mat close beside him, but she herself sat down on the threshold.

“Not there, but come and sit down by my side,” said Halil, and seizing the trembling hand of the odalisk, he made her sit down beside him on the cushion, piled up the pilaf before her, and invited her with kind and encouraging words to fall to.  The odalisk obeyed him.  Not a word had she yet spoken, but when she had finished eating, she turned towards Halil and murmured in a scarce audible voice,

“For six days I have eaten nought.”

“What!” exclaimed Halil in amazement, “six days!  Horrible!  And who was it, pray, that compelled you to endure such torture?”