"Just so, you're quite right! Now, attention please! The trial has
commenced, be on your guard."
"Right you are!"
"Well, what do you think of Mademoiselle Kondjé-Gul Murrah?" she asked
me point blank, looking me straight in the face.
This question was so unexpected that I felt myself blush like a girl of
sixteen.
"Why," I answered, "I think her--most charming and beautiful."
"That's right! Pray don't alarm yourself, my dear young man!" continued
my aunt with a smile.
"Oh, I'm not the least alarmed!"
"That's quite clear!--Well, you admit that you find her most charming
and beautiful. Let us proceed. What is your present position with regard
to her? Tell me the whole truth, and mind don't keep anything back."
I had found time to recover my self-possession.
"Take care," I said, laughing in my turn; "this question of yours may
lead us much further than you imagine."
"That's all nonsense. Don't try to turn off my questions with jokes, and
please leave my dog's ear alone! If you pull it about like that, you'll
make it grow crooked. There, that'll do! Now, answer me seriously, and
with all the respect which you ought to feel in speaking of a young
lady like Kondjé-Gul Murrah."
I was inspired with the brilliant idea of making game of her.
"Must I tell you the whole truth?" I replied. "Do you really require to
know it?"
"I demand it," she said, "in its naked, unsophisticated reality."
"All right, aunt! you shall have it;" I said, in a confident tone. "I
suppose you know that Mademoiselle Kondjé-Gul is a Circassian. Well, she
belongs to my harem; I bought her at Constantinople eight months ago."
My aunt split her sides with laughter.
"There now!" she exclaimed; "what ever is the use of expecting a word of
sense from a lunatic like you?"
"You asked me for the truth, and I have told it to you!" I replied,
laughing secretly at the trick I was playing her.
"Leave off talking rubbish! Can't you understand, you silly boy, that I
am speaking to you about Kondjé-Gul because I can see how the land lies?
It is quite clear to me that between you two there is some sort of
secret understanding; now what is it? I know nothing about it, but
however innocent this mystery may be, I see too much danger about it not
to caution you. Mademoiselle Murrah is not one of those drawing-room
dolls with whom it is safe for a man to risk a little of his heart in
the game of flirtation; no, the man who once falls in love with her
will love her for ever, body and soul, he will be bewitched."