Unfortunately Kondjé-Gul, relying upon my weakness for her, tried to
carry off a decisive victory by a sudden charge. The other evening,
having accompanied me up to the secret door, she rushed through it with
a laugh, and made off for the château, right through the grounds of
Férouzat. I ran after her and soon caught her, encumbered as she was by
her oriental slippers and her long train. I took her back to the harem,
where the others seemed to be awaiting, in a great state of excitement,
the result of this most audacious attempt. Then I learnt that "she had
boasted she would obtain this fresh triumph over them." This was a
flagrant offence. After such an act of rebellion it was necessary to
make an example: I spoke severely, and there was a tremendous scene.
Kondjé-Gul had too much pride to humiliate herself before her rivals,
who were rejoicing over her defeat. Distracted with vexation and carried
away by her foolish impulses, she made the breach between us complete.
For three days she remained haughty and arrogant, accepting her
disgrace, but too proud to make any advances for a reconciliation.
Needless to say, Nazli, Hadidjé, and Zouhra were more affectionate and
attentive to me than ever.
Such was the condition of affairs when the critical incident took place
which I undertook to describe to you.
The other evening, I was in the harem, and Nazli and Zouhra were playing
Turkish airs on the zither, while Hadidjé, seated at my feet, with her
head resting upon her hands, which were crossed on my knees, was singing
in a low murmur the words of each tune.
Kondjé-Gul stayed near the verandah, looking cool and dignified, and
smoking a cigarette in the defiant, and at the same time resigned
attitude of a hardened rebel; but the furtive glances which she cast at
Hadidjé gave the lie to her affected calmness. For two evenings past we
had not exchanged a word with each other. She had dressed herself that
day with remarkable care, as if to impress me with the splendours of the
paradise I had lost: her glorious hair streamed down in long tresses,
somewhat disorderly, from under her pearl-embroidered cap.
Notwithstanding a great gauze veil with which she pretended to enshroud
herself in order to conceal her charms from my profane eyes, her bodice
was so slightly fastened that it dropped down just low enough to expose
to view the charming little pits under her arms and the snowy-whiteness
of her breasts. Like a wrathful Venus, the expression on her face was
both mutinous and resolute. She had put kohl under her eyes (a thing
which I forbid), and had blackened and lengthened her eyebrows so that
they met together, in Turkish fashion. In this get-up the little sinner
looked ravishing!