We form plans innumerable. In the first place we have decided that her

position in regard to my wives shall be definitely fixed, and that she

shall live henceforth separated from them in another part of the house,

where she shall have private attendants. We shall thus be able to see

each other without any constraint, and she will no longer be subjected

to the sneers of my silly houris, who have been treating her apparent

disgrace too brutally since our arrival at Paris. My proud Kondjé-Gul,

in the consciousness of her ascendency over me, would be sure to make a

scene with them some day.

Besides, as I have already told you, she furnishes me every day with a

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more and more engrossing subject of study. I should like you to

understand what sweet and seductive labour this progressive initiation

is; I am watching the development of a mind which I am myself forming.

There is no subject in regard to her, not even her receptive

intelligence, which fails to afford me innumerable surprises. Sometimes

I discover original views and opinions of hers upon matters connected

with our European civilisation, at the correctness of which I am

absolutely amazed. Her progress is surprising, and she wishes to learn

everything, knowing how much is required in order to become "civilised,"

as she calls it.

My uncle and my aunt are in Paris.

A month without any news, you say. And you talk sarcastically about my

leisure, and rally me upon the subject of that famous system, which I

used to boast was a simplification of life. If I might judge from your

twaddle, you imagine me to be saddled with the very cares and worries

from which I justly boasted that I was exempt. You picture me running

backwards and forwards, and incessantly occupied with my four wives, so

that I have not even time to write to you.

Absurd fancy: this is my real situation.

As soon as my four wives were settled down in their new home, they

permitted me much more freedom than did the least burdensome of my

former amours. No anxieties now, no jealousies, no fears for the future.

They are not like some of those feminine taskmasters who take entire

possession of you, forcing you to follow the adored object to the

theatre, or take it to the ball, in order to have the pleasure of

watching it flirting bare-shouldered with some intimate friend, who will

perhaps be its next lover. No, in my rôle of sultan my amours are

modestly hidden from profane eyes in the recesses of my harem, and there

I am always welcome whenever I choose to come. I keep the key in my

pocket. At any hour of the day or night I can go there in my quality of

owner without having to leave my club, my friends, my work, or my

amusements a moment earlier than I desire.




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