Eh? What? You incorrigible carper! Is it not, after all, a charming
romance?
A fortnight has passed since the intervention of the commissary. Kiusko
has gone: he disappeared one morning. My aunt Eudoxia, who has taken us
under her special care, goes to see Kondjé-Gul every day at the convent.
She is charming in her kindness to us, but still we have our anxieties.
The negotiation of the maternal consent is an arduous task, for the
Circassian makes absurd pretensions; my uncle, however, undertakes to
bring her down.
What will you say next, I wonder? That I am reduced to buying my own
wife? I flatter myself that I shall find happiness in that bargain! How
many others are there, who have done the same, that could say as much as
that?