There, for a quarter of an hour, she read the history of the loves of the Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess Badoura.

At last, looking up, she beheld, as it seemed to her, the Prince Camaralzaman standing before her.

A beautiful young man was making her a very low bow--a magnificent bow, such as she had never seen before.

He appeared to have dropped from the clouds; he was wonderfully handsome; he smiled--smiled as if he were smiling on purpose.

Extreme surprise, for a moment, kept Gertrude sitting still; then she rose, without even keeping her finger in her book.