THE GENERAL'S WIFE AND THE SULTAN'S PRESENT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3622, 20 February 1883, Page 4

THE GENERAL'S WIFE AND THE SULTAN'S PRESENT.

The Sultan of Turkey has presented Gen. Lew AVallace. the American Alinister, Avith a beautiful Circassian girl. Airs AVallace AY'as sitting at the front Aviudow of her Constantinople house, on the verge of going doivn to the bazaar for some embroidered stuffs to send home, Allien a cavalcade dreiv up before the door, a huge eunuch, arrayed in Sultan livery, knocked at the door and salaamed, and then two eunuchs a size smaller brought in and deposited on the inside door-mat a big- eyed, beautiful Circassian girl, AY'hose lustrous orbs and sparkling jeivels Avere but little obscured by the filniA- gauze veiling that covered her from head to foot. Airs' AVallace stared at the girl in dumb amazement. "AVhat do you Avant r" she said. The girl shook her head. "Alustaby, Alusta.by !" cried Airs Wallace, sharply : " Avhat does this mean ':" Alustaby came from the floor below, AY-hero he had been polishing some knives with Bristol brick. He dropped the knife and brick Avhcu he caught sight of the visitor. "Ah, ah," he ejaculated, with satisfaction, and he saw the imperial image; "it is a present. It is a present. It is a magnificent present. His Highness has smiled upon my master and has sent him his choicest slave." "And what is the choicest slave going to do in this house. I Avould like to know ;" continued Ali-.s Wallace, Avith a vinegary gleam of sarcasm. " She ivill bring my master's coffee to him Avhen he awakens in the morning, and affectionately superintend his morning's ablutions." "She will, will she':" remarked Airs Wallace, as she gritted her teeth very hard. "She Aiill affectionately superintend his morning's ablutions, Avill slier" and she stealthily fingered a bric-a-brac scimitar, and glared at the offending present. Then she Avalked straight up to the beauty on the door-mat. pointed her index finger out to the front door, and remarked "Go way I The present started at her stupidly. "Go'A\-ay, I tell you. 1 . i'r a shameless hussy to come intruding on a respectable family in tin's ivay." The present did not look as though she had done anything particularly infamous, aud shoAY-ed no disposition to move. Airs AVallace could contain herself no longer. She flciv at the present, grabbed it by the shoulder, aud ivas bustling it down stairs, Avhen Gen. AVallace came around the corner, rather flushed from rapid ivalking. He took in the situation at a glance. "Oh LcAvis r" cried his Avife, Avith accentuated horror, ''did you ever hear of such a thing r' Lewis did not look horrified, though he CA-idently Avas. He evidently had heard of such things, for there Avas a doubtful look on his face. Finally he said: "I don't think, Alalia, that I ivould put it out into the street. It's not to blame, you kIIOAV." There Avas a faint snap in Airs AVallace's eyes, but she nodded and lured him on further. "You see it's a present, and yon can't give away or IhroAV aAvay a present, you know. If avc could send it back, saying that we had no use for it, or that yvo had one already, and couldn't he make it something else, it would be the best ivay. A.'ou have to consult custom and etiquette in these things, you knoiv, dear." " Y-e-e-s," said Airs AY., ivitli a sinister sweetness in her compliance. "Besides" he continued, as lie carelessly took hold of the present's hand and began stroking the present's brow in a gentle and fatherly Yvay, "1. don't really know if it would be safe to send it back at all. A"oii see those foreign powers are mighty touchy, and I don't knoiv but it' 1 ivas to send this present back, and turn up my nose at it in such a Avay, they might be mad enough to declare war on the United States ri_ht off and massacre us all." "You would, ivould your" remarked Air AVallace, in a voice like the first rumbling of a rising typhoon. "'Fraid to send it back, are you, you bald-headed old fraud'r 'Fraid of international complications, arc you, you old Avvcteh r Noav you can understand this, and right now. If that present doesn't go back to that old beast who sent it in loss than ten minutes, I'll show you Avhat kind of a Bulgarian atrocity you're married to. I'll shoiv you," she hissed, as she flew at the present, and inaugurated a, panic in dry goods and halfpins and Circassian squeals and male protests and finally hysterics, and Gen. AVallace called a camel and packed the girl off at hot speed. Then lie went and 6aught it—caught it so hot that he remarked to the Vice-Consul that sooner than go through the ike again he would see tbe whole continent bathed in blood, and the American eagle bombarded until it hadn't a pin feather to its name.—Omaha. Bee.