ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS
WELL.
There was once--the date is of no moment--a Sultan, and he had a
Vizier named Ashimullah. This minister was a wise man, much
trusted by his master; but he was held in some suspicion and
dislike at the court because he had been born--or, if that be
doubtful, had at least been bred--a Christian, and had been
originally a prisoner of the Sultan's armies.
But Ashimullah, for reasons which intimately concerned his own
head, but need not concern anybody else's, promptly found the
true path; and, having professed a ready conversion to
the tenets of Islam, rose rapidly to a high place in the service
of the Sultan, so that his promotion never ceased until he was
installed in the office of Grand Vizier. Yet, remembering his
discreditable past, the Sultan was accustomed to exact from him
the fullest and most minute observance of his religious duties.
To such observance Ashimullah submitted, comforting himself with
the example of Naaman the Syrian; for Ashimullah was still, in
secret, a Christian, and his adherence to Islam was only a polite
concession to public feeling. But there was one point on which
his conscience struck him sorely, and this was no other than the
question of wives. Ashimullah had one wife, a lady of great
beauty and remarkable accomplishments, and for the life of him he
could not see how, consistently with the religion which he held
in his heart and with the honor that he owed to the lady, he
could take any other wife.
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