It was a
white palace of a house with a closed balcony supported on rude
corbels and tightly shuttered. At the back spread a large garden
surrounded by the famous wall. There was no doubt that Hamdi was
a wealthy personage, and that Carlotta's nurture had been as
gentle as that of any lady in Syria. But the place wherein
Carlotta's childhood had been sheltered had an air of
impenetrable mystery. I stood baffled before it, as I had stood
so often before Carlotta's soul. The result of this portion of
my search was the discovery, not of a new theory, but of an old
pain. I went back to the ship in a despondent mood, and caused
deep distress to one of the gentlest creatures I have ever met.
He was a lean, elderly German, who no matter what the occasion or
what the temperature wore a long, tight-buttoned frock-coat, a
narrow black tie, and a little bluish-grey felt hat adorned with
a partridge's feather which gave him an air of forlorn
rakishness. His name was Doctor Anastasius Dose, and he spent a
blameless life in travelling up and down the world, on behalf of
a Leipsic firm of which he was a member, in search of rare and
curious books.
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