When it was time to start homewards, and the ladies returned to the barge, he went up to the inn to pay the reckoning.

As he presently returned alone the Arab saw him pick up a handkerchief that the young lady had left on the table, and hastily press it to his lips as he went towards the barge.
The gorgeous red blossoms had fared worse in the morning.

The young man's heart was given to that maiden on the water.

She could not be his sister; what then was the connection between them?
The merchant soon gained this information, for the guide on his return could give it him.

She was Paula, the daughter of Thomas, the famous Greek general who had defended the city of Damascus so long and so bravely against the armies of Islam.