When Adilé-Hanoum was fourteen her parents engaged her to a young Bey who lived at Salonica, and whom she would not see until the eve of her marriage. This Turkish custom of marrying a perfect stranger seemed to me terrible, and I spoke of it to my young mistress. She replied in a resigned tone: "Why should we trouble ourselves about a future which Allah has arranged? Each star is safe in the firmament, no matter in what place it is." * * * * * One evening I was walking up and down on the closed balcony outside the _haremlik_. I was feeling very sad and lonely, when suddenly I heard steps behind me, and by the beating of my heart I knew that it was Mourad-bey. "Féliknaz," he said, seizing me by the arm, "what are you doing here, all alone?" "I was thinking of my country, Bey-Effendi. In our Circassia all men are equal, just like the ears of corn in a field." "Look up at me again like that, Féliknaz; your eyes are gloomy and troubled, like the Bosphorus on a stormy day." "It is because my heart is like that," I said, sadly. "Do you know that I am going to be married?" he asked, after a moment's silence. I did not reply, but kept my eyes fixed on the ground. "You are thinking how unhappy I shall make my wife," he continued: "how she will suffer from my bad treatment." "Oh! no," I exclaimed. "I do not think she will be unhappy. You will, of course, love _her_, and that is different. You are unkind to _me_, but then that is not the same." "You think I do not love _you_," said the Bey, taking my hands and pressing them so that it seemed as though he would crush them in his grasp. "You are mistaken, Féliknaz. I love you madly, passionately; I love you so much that I would rather see you dead here at my feet than that you should ever belong to any other than to me!" "Why have you been so unkind to me always, then?" I murmured, half-closing my eyes, for he was gazing at me with such an intense expression on his dark, handsome face that I felt I dare not look up at him again. "Because when I have seen you suffering through me it has hurt me too; and yet it has been a joy to me to know you were thinking of me and to suffer with you, for whenever I have made you unhappy, little one, I have been still more so myself. Your smiles and your gentleness have tamed me though, at last; and now you shall be mine, not as Féliknaz the slave, but as Féliknaz-Hanoum, for I respect you, my darling, as much as I love you!" Mourad-bey then took me in his arms and kissed my face and neck, and then he went back to his rooms, leaving me there leaning on the balcony and trembling all over. Allah had surely cared for me, for I had never even dared to dream of such happiness as this. III.