I will account to you for every part that I have expended; and will, moreover, tell you the reason of my making such an extraordinary vow.' "As I believed that this benevolent old woman took great pleasure in talking, I made an inclination of my head to thank her for her promised history, and she proceeded; but I must confess I did not listen with all the attention her narrative doubtless deserved.

Even curiosity, the strongest passion of us Turks, was dead within me.

I have no recollection of the old woman's story.

It is as much as I can do to finish my own.
"The weather became excessively hot; it was affirmed by some of the physicians that this heat would prove fatal to their patients; but, contrary to the prognostics of the physicians, it stopped the progress of the plague.

I recovered, and found my purse much lightened by my illness.