Layelah, however, was not at all discouraged, nor did she lose any of her amiability; but when she took leave it was with a smile and sweet words of forgiveness on her lips for what she called my cruelty.

After she left I remained for a time with a painful sense of helplessness.

The fact is my European training did not fit me for encountering such a state of things as existed among the Kosekin.

It's very easy to be faithful to one's own true-love in England, when other fair ladies hold aloof and wait to be sought; but here among the Kosekin, women have as much liberty in making love as men, and there is no law or custom about it.

If a woman chooses she can pay the most desperate attentions, and play the part of a distracted lover to her heart's content.