"I have sent for you, Komel," said the monarch, while he regarded her intently as he spoke, "to tell you that Aphiz is dead."
"Dead, excellency; do you say dead?"
"Yes."
"You do but jest with me, excellency," she said, trying in her tremor to smile.
"I rarely jest with any one and surely should not have sent for you were I in that mood. He has gone to make food for the fishes at the bottom of the Bosphorus."
"Has his life been taken by your orders, excellency?" she asked, with a pallid cheek and blanched lips.
"You have said," answered the Sultan.
"Ah! excellency, I am but a weak girl and can ill abide a jest. Aphiz can have done nothing to receive your displeasure, and surely you would not take his life without reason."
"I had reason sufficient for me."
"What was it, excellency?"