“A hundred thousand francs! The poor girl originally possessed much more than that; she was born to treasures in comparison with which those recorded in the Thousand and One Nights would seem but poverty.”
“She must be a princess then.”
“You are right; and she is one of the greatest in her country too.”
“I thought so. But how did it happen that such a great princess became a slave?”
“How was it that Dionysius the Tyrant became a schoolmaster? The fortune of war, my dear viscount—the caprice of fortune; that is the way in which these things are to be accounted for.”
“And is her name a secret?”
“As regards the generality of mankind it is; but not for you, my dear viscount, who are one of my most intimate friends, and on whose silence I feel I may rely, if I consider it necessary to enjoin it—may I not do so?”
“Certainly; on my word of honor.”
“You know the history of the Pasha of Yanina, do you not?”
“Of Ali Tepelini? Oh, yes; it was in his service that my father made his fortune.”
“True, I had forgotten that.”
“Well, what is Haydée to Ali Tepelini?”
“Merely his daughter.”
“What? the daughter of Ali Pasha?”