I had just left my uncle, and was walking towards the library to write at once to the notary, when Francis informed me that a woman from the Kasre had been waiting an hour to see me. One of the Greek servants came sometimes to the chateau, either with messages or to await my orders. I concluded at once that, not having seen me either during the day or in the evening, my little animals had grown anxious and were sending to inquire after me. I went to my room, where Francis said the woman was.
As I entered I saw her standing up, motionless, near the window, wrapped in her great black feridjie; but I had hardly shut the door behind me when, all at once, I heard a cry and sobs. The feridjie fell down, and I recognised Kondje-Gul, who threw herself on to my neck and seized me in her arms with signs of the deepest despair.
"Good gracious!" I said, "is that you? _You_ come here?"
Breathless and suffocated with tears, she could not answer me. I guessed, rather than heard, these words:
"I have run away! I have come to die with you!"
"But you are mad, dear, quite mad!" I exclaimed. "Why should you die?
What has happened then?"
"Oh, we know all!" she continued. "Barbassou-Pasha has returned. He is a terrible man. He is going to kill you; us also; Mohammed also!"
And raving with fear she clung to me with all her strength, just as if she were already threatened with death.
"But, my dear child," I said, "this is all madness--who in the world has told you such nonsense?"
"Mohammed. He heard of the Pasha's return--he has hidden himself."
"But my uncle is a very kind man--he adores me, and does not even intend to see you. Nothing will be changed for us by his return."
Seeing me so calm, she was gradually reassured. Still she was too much possessed by her Turkish notions to believe all at once in such a departure from correct oriental usages.
"Well then," she said as she dried her tears, "he will only kill Mohammed?"
"Not even Mohammed!" I exclaimed, with a smile. "Mohammed is a poor coward, and I will give him a bit of my mind to-morrow, so that he shan't worry you with any more nonsense of this kind."
"You don't mean it?" she replied. "Then he will only get a beating?"
I was about to protest, when I perceived by her first words that she suspected I wanted to play upon her credulity. There was thus a danger of reviving her worst fears, for she would not believe any more of my assurances. I contented myself therefore with promising to intercede with Barbassou-Pasha. Once convinced that Mohammed's punishment would extend no further than his hind-quarters, she troubled herself no more about it, but with the characteristic volatility of these little wild creatures, began to chatter and examine all the things in my room, touching and feeling everything with an insatiable curiosity.
"Come now, you must go home," I said to her, not wishing this little excursion of hers to be discovered.
"Oh, no! Oh, no!" she cried, with childlike delight. "It's your home--do let me look at it!"
"Oh, but you must go and comfort Zouhra, Nazli, and Hadidje!"
"They are asleep," she said. "I want to stay a little time here alone with you! Besides," she added, with a little frightened look still lingering on her face, "suppose Barbassou-Pasha has been deceiving you, suppose he is coming to kill you to-night?"
"But once more I tell you, dear, you are _mad!_"
"Well then, why send me back so soon?"
"Because it is not proper for you to leave the harem," I answered. "Come along, off you go!"
"Oh, just a little longer!--I beg you, dear!" she said, with a kiss.
How could I resist her, my dear Louis? Tell me?
I sat down, watching her moving about and rummaging everywhere. I must tell you that under her feridjie (which she had let down on my entrance into the room), she was dressed in a sort of loose gown of pale blue cashmere, embroidered with lively designs in silk and gold. Her snow-white arms emerged from wide, hanging sleeves. This costume produced a charming picturesque effect in the midst of my room, which, although comfortable, was very prosaic in its style--although to her it seemed wonderful. She touched everything, for she could not be satisfied with seeing only, and her questions never ceased.... At last, after half-an-hour, considering her curiosity to be satisfied, as she was beginning to ransack the books lying on my table, I said once more,
"Come, Kondje-Gul, you must go."
With these words, I picked up her feridjie, and took her back to the harem. A pale light was shining through the windows of the drawing-room.
Hadidje, Nazli, and Zouhra were still there. To describe the terror which came over their faces directly I appeared, would be impossible.
Hearing steps in the night, they made sure their last moments had arrived. At the sound of the door opening, they cried out loud--the three poor miserable things took refuge in a corner.
When they saw me enter with Kondje-Gul, they were thrown into a great consternation. With a few words I reassured them at once.
As to Mohammed, it was impossible to find him. I will confess, moreover, that I felt very little interest in searching for him--I was far from ill-pleased with the thought that he was paying for the trouble which his stupidity had caused my poor darlings, by a night of fear and trembling.
My lamb having returned to the fold, I eventually retraced my steps to the chateau.
Is it necessary to tell you that the surprising events of the day had caused me emotions which I was scarcely able to understand?
My uncle's resurrection--
Lefebure--
The Changallas--
The camels--
They all kept my brain at work the whole night long.
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CHAPTER IV.
I apologise, my dear Louis, for having left you a month without a letter from me, as you reproach me somewhat severely. You are not afraid, I should hope, that my friendship for you has cooled. The real cause of my silence is that I have had nothing to tell you. The even tenor of my existence permits only of daily repetitions of the same very simple events. My affections being divided between my harem and my uncle Barbassou, I revel in the tranquillity of the fields and woods, which afford to my mind that quiet freedom which is always more or less disturbed by the excited atmosphere of city life.
Do not imagine, however, that we have been living like monastics, disdaining all worldly distractions: the governor is not the man to lead the existence of a Carthusian monk. He is as much on horseback as on foot. In the daytime we make hunting excursions; he visits his "god-children" and my estates: you may rely upon it, I have got an active steward in _him_! In the evening we receive our friends at the chateau--the vicar, the Morands, father and son, and, twice a week, the notary. We play whist at penny points, and very lively games of piquet--only the latter not so often, as my uncle cheats at it. About eleven o'clock the carriages are got ready to take these people home. I then accompany my uncle to his room, and we talk over business matters, and about my _fiancee_; for, of course, my marriage with his "god-daughter" is an understood thing, and we have not even a notion of discussing the question. Finally, when he gets sleepy, he goes to bed, and I go off to El-Nouzha.
Besides these occupations we have another very serious one, namely, rummaging among the mass of curios which he heaped up together in the lumber-room of the chateau.
"Ah, Andre!" my uncle said to me one day, with the reproachful accent of a faithful steward, "you have a lot of fine things up there which you are very foolish to leave in that lumber-hole. If I were you, I would have them all out!"
"Let us get them all out then at once, uncle," I answered.
Thereupon we set to work sorting them out, and you have no idea of the things we found--valuable paintings, works of art, rare old furniture, and arms of all countries. You will see what a museum they constitute, if you make an excursion down here, as you have promised. Really, for an artist of your genius, this alone would be worth the journey.
We also pay visits at the two neighbouring chateaux of the Montanbecs and the Camboulions; but confine ourselves strictly to the customary conventionalities between neighbours, the female element which we encounter at these places belonging, as my uncle puts it, to the very lowest zoological order of beings.