The sky is clear, the atmosphere heavy with the odors of spring, the gardens a mass of bloom. Through the network of paths still wet with dew black eunuchs wearing gold-colored tunics and slaves clad in garments of every hue carry baskets and dishes covered with green cloths back and forth between the kitchens and the various kiosks. Ustàs of the validéh, coming hurriedly out of the little Moorish doorways, run against the Sultan’s _gheduclùs_, passing by with haughty mien and followed by novice slaves carrying the imperial linen. All eyes follow the youngest of all the _gheduclùs_, the cup-bearer, a Syrian child, singled out by Allah, since she has found such favor in the eyes of the Grand Seignior that he has bestowed upon her the title of “_daughter of felicity_,” and the sable mantle will follow so soon as she shall have given signs of approaching maternity. In the distance the Sultan’s jesters are playing in the shade of the sycamores dressed in harlequin costumes, and with them a number of dwarfs with huge turbans on their heads, while beyond them, again, half concealed by a hedge, a gigantic eunuch with a slight movement of head and hand directs five mutes charged with the duty of carrying out punishments to present themselves before Kizlar-aghàsi, who needs them for a secret affair. Youths of an ambiguous beauty and clad in rich feminine-looking garments run and chase one another among the borders of a garden shaded by a single huge plane tree. At another place a troop of slaves suddenly pause, and, separating in two lines, bow low before the khasnadâr, superintendent of the harem, who returns their greetings with a stately wave of her staff adorned with tiny silver blades and terminating in the imperial seal. At the same moment a door opens, and out comes one of the _kadyns_, dressed in pale blue and enveloped in a thick white veil. She is followed by her slaves, and is on her way to take advantage of the permission obtained from the superintendent on the previous day to play at battledore and shuttlecock with another _kadyn_. Turning down a shady alley, she meets and exchanges soft greetings with one of the Sultan’s sisters going to the bath accompanied by her children and maid-servants. At the end of a sequestered path a eunuch stands before the kiosk of another _kadyn_, awaiting permission to admit a Hebrew woman with her wares consisting, though not entirely, of precious stones. She has only obtained the right of entrance to the imperial harem after endless wirepulling and scheming, and now carries concealed among her jewels more than one secret missive from an ambitious pasha or daring lover. At the extreme end of the harem enclosure the hanum charged with the duty of examining slaves for admission is looking for the superintendent to inform her that the young Abyssinian brought in the day before is, in her opinion, worthy of being admitted among the _gheduclùs_, if a tiny lump on the left shoulder-blade may be overlooked. In the