A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE. 351
her, she sat in silent fear lest the first view ob-
tained of her by her husband had failed in en-
gaging his sympathy. But the exclamation of
admiration that burst from his lips reassured her,
and the rapture of the moment was rendered
complete by Hafiza confessing, that from the
hareem lattices she had often contemplated Selim
Bey, when he followed in the train of the Pasha,
that in her eyes he had long excelled all others
in beauty and grace, and that she knew from the
joy she had experienced, when told that he was
to become her husband, that his image had long
dwelt in her heart.
Never did Mahometan marriage commence
under such happy circumstances—never before
did such interchange of tenderness and sentiment
embellish the entrance of a Moslem bride into
her husband's house. Their mutual vows were
interrupted by Hafiza's slaves bringing in the
nuptial repast ; and in conformance with Turkish
usages, the bride arose, and prepared to wait
upon her husband as a handmaid, while he par-
took of it. The morose pride of Turkish hus-
bands, and the inferior scale in which all females
are classed by them, and which prevents their
distinguishing between a wife and a slave, not
only permits such a violation of tlie laws of gal-