Having received your promise, Louis, I now resume my narrative at the

point where I broke off. Now you will see what you might have lost.

Just one word by way of preface.

I am relating to you, my dear friend, a story which is more especially

remarkable for the multitude of unaccustomed sensations with which it

abounds, and which I experience at every step--for my amourous

adventures, as you will agree, bear no resemblance to the ready-made

class of amours. It would really have been a great loss for the future

of psychology, if the hero of such adventures had not happened to be, as

I am, a philosopher capable of bringing to bear upon them powers of

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correct analysis.

First of all, if you wish really to understand the peculiarities of my

situation, you must banish from your mind all that you have ever known

of such amours as come within the reach of the poor Lovelaces of our

everyday world. Those uncertain, ephemeral connections of lovers and

mistresses whose only law is their caprice, and which mere caprice can

dissolve; those immoral and dubious ties whose permanence nothing can

guarantee, and in which one jostles one's rival of yesterday and of the

morrow--in all amours of this sort there is something precarious and

humiliating. With our habits and customs no secret, no mystery, is

possible; for however loving or beloved a woman may be, her beauty is

exposed to every eye. It is like the enjoyment of communal property. In

my harem, on the contrary, the charms of Zouhra, Nazli, and Kondjé-Gul,

concealed from all other eyes, have never excited any passions but mine;

my tranquil possession is undisturbed by the anxious jealousies which

recollections of a former rival always awaken. Nor is the future less

assured than the present, for their lives are my property; they are my

slaves, and I their master, in charge of their souls. So much for my

preface; now I will proceed.

I will not disparage your powers of memory by reminding you that my

interesting narrative was broken off au premier lendemain--at the

first glimmer of our honeymoon. The complete bliss, the enchantment of

such moments, is certainly the most exquisite thing I have experienced.

First the timid blushes, then the growing boldness and the fresh

impression of first sensations--all this and more, mingled with the

contentment of entire possession. One gives oneself up entirely; all

barriers are broken down by love--participation in one tender secret has

already united the lovers' souls, which seek each other and mingle

together in a common existence.

I had returned to the château before my people were up; after a bath I

slept again, and did not wake before noon. I breakfasted, and then

waited till two o'clock before returning to El-Nouzha. Too great a haste

would have seemed to indicate a want of delicacy, and I wished to show

that I was discreet as well as passionate; this time of day seemed

appropriate from both points of view.




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