and to hang chains of real pearls about her arms and neck.  Irene knew not the meaning of these things.  She knew not what they meant to do with her till the Kizlar-Aga approached her, and said these words to her in a reassuring tone:  ’Rejoice, fortunate damsel! for a great felicity awaits thee.  In a week’s time it will be the Feast of Bairam, and the favourite Sultana has chosen thee from among the other odalisks as a gift for the Padishah.  Rejoice, therefore, I say.’  But Irene at these words would fain have died.  And in the meantime the Sultana had placed a large fan in her hand made entirely of pea-cocks’ feathers, and permitted her to sit down by her side and hold the little dwarf in her lap.  At a later day Irene discovered that this was a mark of supreme condescension.  During the next six days the damsel lived amidst mortal terrors.  Her companions envied her.  The damsels of the harem do not love each other, they can only hate.  Every day she beheld the Sultan, whose gentle face inspired involuntary respect, but the very idea of loving him filled her soul with horror.  The Sultan spent the greater part of his time with his favourite wife, but it happened sometimes that he cast a handkerchief towards this or that odalisk, which was a great piece of good fortune for her, or the reverse—­it all depends upon the point of view.  The damsel whom the Grand Seignior seemed to favour the most was a beautiful blonde Italian girl; on one occasion this beautiful blonde damsel neglected to cast her eyes down as they chanced to encounter the eyes of the Sultana.  The following day Irene could not see this damsel anywhere, and on inquiring after her was told by her bedfellow in a whisper that she had been strangled during the night.  And oftentimes at dead of night the silence would be broken by a shriek from the secret dungeon of the Seraglio, followed by the sound of something splashing into the water, and regularly, on the day following every such occurrence, a familiar face would be missing from the Seraglio.  All these victims were self-confident slave-girls, who had been unable to conceal their joy at the Sultan’s favours, and therefore had been cast into the water.  Nobody ever inquired about them any more.”

Janaki shivered all over.

“It is well that this is all a tale,” he observed.

But Guel-Bejaze only continued her story.

“At last the Feast of Bairam arrived, and throughout the day all the cannons on the Bosphorus sent forth their thunders.  In the evening the Sultan came to the Seraglio weary and inclined to relaxation, and then the Sultana Asseki took Irene by the hand and conducted her to the Padishah, and presented her to him, together with gold-embroidered garments, preserved fruits, and other gifts intended for his delectation.  The Grand Seignior regarded the girl tenderly, while she, like a kid of the flocks offered to a lion in a cage, stood trembling before him.  But when the Sultan seized her hand to draw her towards him