From the foot of the palm trees parted a double hedge of purple beeches, of silvery willows, of nopals of strange forms with saffron tints, and of various shrubs with their many colored flowers and fruits. The dog-shades, with their stars of violet colored velvet, the night-shades, with their scarlet clusters involved amidst the mimosas, out of which sprang the golden features of the cassia. Mingling their branches with the lower branches of the plantain, the mangroves hung like garlands above the head of Baïla, their large leaves hollowed into cups, and so strangely bordered with flowers and fruits of orange color mixed with crimson. Farther back, behind the plantain, on a reddish, sandy spot, grew large numbers of the ice plant, presenting to the deceived vision the appearance of plants caught by the frost during the winter in our northern climes, and the glass work covered the ground with crystalized plates. The picture was soon to become animated. The magnificent eastern sun, sinking toward the horizon and throwing his last flames beneath the verdant pediment of the palm trees, caused the earth to sparkle as if covered with diamonds. His rays, broken by the glittering sheaf in the basin, spread across those masses of flower and foliage, rainbows, superb in golden and violet tints; they flashed from the plantain to the variegated cups of the mangrove, and lighted up the whole form of Baïla, from her brow, crowned with sequins, to her spangled slippers; they even mingled with the smoke of her narghila, and with the vapor of the Mocha, which arose like a perfume from the porcelain cup, and glistening on the skin of the tiger on which she was seated, appeared to roll about in small vague circles. When the night breeze, rising, gently agitated the flowers and the herbage, mingling in soft harmony all those zones of light and shade, was it not a subject of regret that a human eye could not gaze upon the beautiful odalisk, in the midst of those magical illusions, shining in the triple splendor of her jewels, her youth, and her beauty? And, yet, a man was to enjoy this bewitching scene, and that man not her master. Mariam, the old negress, was asleep at the foot of the tree, holding in her hands the small mortar in which she had bruised the coffee to supply the demands of her mistress. Baïla, half dozing, was holding out, mechanically, toward her the china cup, when a man suddenly appeared between the two palm trees. At the sight of him the odalisk at first thought she was dreaming; then, restrained by a feeling, perhaps of alarm, perhaps of curiosity, remained quiet, immovable, without speaking—only the cup which she held fell from her hands.