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and she entered the durbar by a private door in the garden. 

 Three years had passed in this manner, when one evening the 

 lovely girl, her eyes suffused in tears, informed her protector that 

 knowing he would shortly return to Europe, a cavalry officer of 

 a good family in her own casle, had offered to marry her; a pro- 

 posal she never would have listened to, had he remained in India; 

 but under the idea of losing him, she requested his counsel on a 

 scheme so important to her happiness. Her friend, delighted with 

 this honourable establishment, readily consented, and the marriage 

 took place. Zeida lived with her husband in a remote part of 

 tht; city; from prudential reasons all former intercourse ceased; 

 and from the different modes of life between Europeans and 

 Asiatics, nothing was heard of Zeida for many months. 



In the warm nights preceding the rainy season, the youth 

 generally slept upon a sofa, placed under a gauze musquito- 

 curtain, on the flat roof of the durbar; to which there was one 

 ascent from the interior, and another by an outer flight of steps 

 from the garden. While reposing there on one of those delightful 

 moon-light nights known only between the tropics, and apparently 

 in a dream, he thought something gently pressed his heart, and 

 caused a peculiar glow, accompanied by a spicy odour, which 

 impregnated the atmosphere; under this sensation he awoke, and 

 beheld a female reclining over him in a graceful attitude. Her 

 personal charms, costly jewels, and elegant attire were discernable 

 through a transparent veil, a double fold artfully falling over the 

 upper part concealed her features. Her left hand contained a 

 box of perfumed ointment, with which her right was softly anoint- 

 ing his bosom, nearest the region of the heart. Doubtful whether 



