Half an hour later I joined Kondje-Gul again at her house. She had sent Fanny out of the room, and was waiting for me. When she saw me, she threw her arm round my neck, and the long pent-up tears seemed to start from her eyes like a fountain.

“Good heavens!” I exclaimed, “what is it, then?”

And taking her on my knees like a child, I held her in my arms; but she soon recovered her energy.

“Listen, dear,” she said in a firm voice, “you must forgive me for what I have just done: you must forgive me for having concealed my thoughts and my troubles from you, even at the risk of distressing you.”

“I forgive you, everything,” I answered immediately, “go on, tell me quickly.”

“Well, then! For a whole week I have been deceiving you,” she continued, “by telling you that I had no troubles, and that I did not know the cause of that sadness which I could not conceal from you. I was afraid of making you angry with my mother, by confessing to you that it was she who was tormenting me.”

“Your mother!” I exclaimed: “and what had she to say to you, then?”

“You shall hear all,” she said, with animation, “for I must justify myself for having kept a secret from you. I daresay you remember,” she continued, “that a fortnight ago she spoke to me about your marriage, telling me that you were going to leave me.”

“Yes, yes, I understand,” I said. “What then?”

“My mother had made me promise to keep this revelation a secret, because it was necessary, so she said, that Count Kiusko should not suspect that we loved each other. She said that he had expressly attributed my refusal to become his wife to some hope which I doubtless entertained of marrying you.”

“Well, go on; tell me what has occurred since.”

“You know the state of trouble you found me in that night. I could not hold back my tears, and you commanded me to tell you all. At last you reassured me with so much warmth of feeling, that after that I did not believe anyone but you. Quite happy at the thought of sacrificing myself to your will, and to your peace of mind, I left off thinking about my alarms, and regretted them as an insult to our love; I repeated to my mother all your kind promises, and thought that I had set her mind at rest. Imagine my astonishment at hearing her, a few days afterwards, return to the subject: she had seen the count again, who had declared that your uncle would disinherit you if you did not carry out his wishes.”

“And did you believe all that?”

“No,” she replied promptly, “for you had not told me so! But then my mother, seeing that I would only believe you, changed her tactics: she spoke about Count Kiusko, his wealth, and his love for me.”

“She did that, did she?”

“Oh, forgive her!” she continued; “she gets anxious both on my account and her own. She is alarmed about the future, and fancies she sees me deserted by you! Well, it was simply a cruel struggle for me, in which my heart could not betray you. I suffered through it, and that’s all! But three days ago, I don’t know what can have passed during your aunt’s party, my mother, on our way home, said to me in a decided manner that she had resolved ‘to live no longer among the infidels,’ and intended ’to return to the land of the Faithful, in order to expiate the great wrong she had committed by living here.’

“I was dismayed at this resolution of hers. As she based it upon our faith, I could not oppose her, for that would have been a sacrilege, but I could at least invoke her affection for me, and entreat her not to leave. Then, while I was on my knees before her, and was kissing her and crying, she startled me by saying: ’You shall not leave me; for, when I go, I shall take you away with me’!”

“Why, she must be crazy!” I exclaimed.

“Well, dear,” added Kondje-Gul, “you can easily understand what a thunderbolt this was to me! I felt it so painfully that I nearly swooned away. My mother was alarmed and called for Fanny. The next day, I attempted to prevail upon her to change her mind, declaring that it would kill me to be separated from you. I thought I had mollified her, for she kissed me and said that all she cared about was my happiness. But this evening, while we were in the carriage on our way to Suzannah’s, she spoke again to me about Count Kiusko. I have a presentiment that the greatest enemy to our love and happiness is that man; and that he it is who has been influencing my mother, hoping, no doubt, that when separated from you I should no longer be able to resist her wishes.

“Well, you know the rest, I had gone into the boudoir while you were dancing, when the count came and sat down by my side. ’Is it true that you are going away?’ he said to me, after a minute or so. ’Who could make you believe such a thing?’ I replied coldly. ’Why, something your mother told me which seemed to imply it.’ I remained silent he did not venture to follow up the subject, and said nothing more for a few minutes. I kept my eyes on a book which I was looking through, for I felt that his eyes were fixed upon me. ’Perhaps you will regret Andre a little,’ he continued, ’but what can you do? He is not free, and besides, do you suppose he would have loved you?’

“At this question, the cruel irony of which wounded me to the quick, I was possessed by some mad impulse, I raised my head and replied to him in such a scornful tone that he rose up in confusion. Just then you came in. I wished to overwhelm him with my contempt so as to destroy all further hopes he might cherish. You know what I said ”

“And quite right, too! For it was necessary to put a stop to his nonsense. I will attend to it.”

“But what if my mother wants to separate us?”

“Your mother, indeed!” I exclaimed; “your mother who sold you, abandoned you to the life of a slave, do you think she can come and claim the rights which she has thrown away?”

“Can you defend me against her, then?”

“Yes, dear, I will defend you,” I exclaimed in a passion, “and now set your mind at ease. There is a miserable plot at the bottom of all this, which I intend demolishing. When I leave you I am going to Count Kiusko, and I assure you that he sha’n’t trouble you any more: after that I shall see your mother.”

“Good heavens!” said Kondje-Gul, “are you going to fight him?”

“No, no,” I answered with a laugh, in order to remove her fears; “but you must understand that it is necessary for me to have an explanation with him.”

In the morning I returned home and arranged all my affairs ready for any eventuality; then when all was in order I went after two of my friends, and asked them to hold themselves ready to act as my seconds in an affair which I might be compelled by grave circumstances to settle that very day. Having obtained their promise to do so, I proceeded to Kiusko’s in the Rue de l’Elysee.

When I arrived at his house, I saw from the windows being open that he was up. A footman, who knew me, was standing under the peristyle. He told me that he did not think his master would see anyone then. I gave him my card and instructed him to send it up at once to the count. In a minute or two after he returned and asked me to come up to his master’s private room: he showed me into a little smoking-room adjoining the bedroom, to which the count’s intimate friends only are admitted. I had hardly entered it when Daniel appeared; he was dressed in a Moldavian costume which he uses as a dressing-gown.

“Hullo, here’s our dear friend Andre!” he said when he saw me, in such an indifferent tone that I could detect in it the intentional affectation of a calmness to which his pale countenance gave the lie.

Still he did not hold out his hand to me, nor did I proffer mine; he sat down, indicating to me an arm-chair on the other side of the fire-place.

“What good fortune has brought you here so early this morning?” he continued, taking a few puffs at his cigar.

“Why, I should have thought you expected to see me,” I replied, looking him straight in the face.

He returned my look with a smile.

“I expected you, without expecting you, as they say.”

By the peculiar tone in which he uttered these words, I could see that he was determined to make me take the initiative in the matter upon which I had come.

“Very well!” I said, wishing to show him that I guessed his mind. “I will explain myself.”

“I am all attention, my dear fellow,” he answered.

“I have come to speak to you,” I continued drily, “about Mademoiselle Kondje-Gul Murrah, and about what passed yesterday between her and you.”

“Ah, yes! I understand: you are referring to the somewhat severe lecture which I drew upon myself, and to the confidential communication she made me.”

“Precisely so,” I added; “you could not sum up the two points better than you have done: a lecture, and a confidence. Now as one outcome of the second point is that I am responsible for all Mademoiselle Murrah’s acts, I have come to place myself at your command respecting the lecture she thought fit to give you.”

“What nonsense, my dear fellow!” he exclaimed, puffing a cloud of smoke into the air. “After all I only had what I deserved, for I can only blame my own presumption. Besides the very anger of such a charming young lady is a favour to the man who incurs it, so that my only regret is that I offended her. I should therefore really laugh at myself to think that I could hold you responsible for this little incident: nay, I will go so far as to say that, strictly speaking, I should owe you an apology for what you might be justified in complaining of as an act of disloyalty between friends, but for the fact that I can plead as my excuse the complete ignorance in which you left me of certain mysterious relations. You must know very well that a simple word from you, my relative, my friend, would have made me stop short on the brink of the precipice.”

I appreciated the reproachful irony concealed in this last sentence; but I had gone too far to trouble myself about remorses of conscience regarding him.

“So then,” I replied, “you have nothing to say, no satisfaction to demand of me in respect to this lecture?”

“None whatever, my dear fellow!” he answered, in the same easy tone which he had preserved all along. “And I may add that there could be nothing more ridiculous than a quarrel between two friends like you and me upon such a matter!”

“Let’s think no more about it then!” I continued, imitating his composure. “Since you take it so good-naturedly, I sha’n’t press it. But, having settled this first point, it remains now for us to discuss what you have termed the confidence.”

At this he could not repress a slight gesture. His dark eye flashed up, but for a moment only: he was soon quite calm again.

“Ah, yes!” he said carelessly; “now we’ve come to the second point.”

“This is the point of importance for me,” I added; “and I am going to ask you, on my side, what you propose to do after this revelation?”

“I must compliment you, my dear fellow, for upon my word it’s a most wonderful romance. Do you really mean to say that this beautiful young lady whom we have all been admiring from a distance, fascinated by her charms, and who like a young queen has been starring it in the most aristocratic drawing-rooms of your society, exciting enthusiastic praise wherever she goes, that she is your slave? You must admit that no mortal man could help envying you!”

“Do your compliments,” I continued, “imply an engagement, on your part, to abandon importunities, which you now recognise to be useless?”

“Oh, indeed!” he exclaimed, with a laugh; “so you’re going to ask me now to make my confession?”

Exasperated by this imperturbable composure of his, which I could not break down, I again looked him straight in the face, and asked

“Do you mean to say you refuse to understand me?”

“No, my good sir!” he answered, resuming his peculiar smile, “I understand you perfectly well; you want to pick a quarrel with me, or to force me to demand satisfaction from you for a matter to which I do not attach as much importance as you do. Between ourselves, a duel would be an act of folly.”

“Do you understand, at any rate,” I retorted, “that I forbid your ever presenting yourself before Mademoiselle Kondje-Gul Murrah again?”

“Fie! my dear fellow! What do you take me for? After such an astonishing confession on her part, I should prove myself deficient in the most ordinary discretion, if I did not henceforth spare her my presence; so you may set your mind at ease on that point.”

“Do you also imply by this evasive answer that you will abandon certain plots with her mother, which I might describe in terms that would not please you?”

“Corbleu! I should be too heavily handicapped in such a game, you must admit. Nor do I think that the good lady would be of much service to me, from what I know of her. Moreover,” he added, “you have made me your confidences, as a friend, and, late though they arrive, I shall feel bound by them henceforth, if only on the ground of the mutual consideration, which, in grave circumstances, relations owe to each other.”

The idea, then, occurred to me of provoking him in another way; but I clearly realised that, as he was playing such a perfidious part, it would be dangerous for me to commit this imprudence.

“Come, my dear Daniel,” I said, as I rose from my chair, “at any rate, I can see that you have a very good-natured disposition.”

“Of course I have,” he replied; “and yet there are people who accuse me of evil designs.”

The most formidable perils are those which you feel darkly conscious of, without being able to discern either the enemy or the snare. This interview with Kiusko left almost an impression of terror on my mind. Knowing him to be as brave as I did, I felt convinced that his insensibility to my insults could only be due to the calculated calm of an implacable will, which was pursuing its object, whether of love, of vengeance, or of hatred, with all the energy of desperation.

Notwithstanding the humiliations he had undergone, I made sure that he had by no means given up the game. He meant to have Kondje-Gul, even if he had to capture her forcibly, and to carry her off as his prey. When I considered his sinister calm, which seemed to be abiding its opportunity, I wondered whether we were not already threatened by some secret machinations on his part.

Still I was not the man to be overcome by childish panics; so I soon got over this transitory feeling of alarm. I knew that after all we were so unequally matched, that I need not seriously fear his success. However determined Kiusko might be not to abandon the cowardly rôle he had assumed, I felt sure that an open affront at the club would compel him to fight.

Feeling reassured by this consideration, I decided to be guided in my action by the result of the interview which I was going to have with Kondje-Gul’s mother. It was necessary for me to commence by putting a stop to the foolish proceedings of this woman, who was perhaps acting unintentionally as Kiusko’s accomplice in schemes the object of which she could not foresee. It was eleven o’clock, an hour at which I knew I should find her alone, while Kondje-Gul was taking her lessons: I went accordingly to Teral House.

When I arrived a carriage was coming in and drawing up under the portico. I saw Madame Murrah get out of it. She could not avoid showing some annoyance on observing me. Rather surprised at her taking such an early drive, I asked her to go into the drawing-room. She went there before me, and, seeing me take an arm-chair, she sat down on the divan in her usual indolent manner, and waited to hear what I had to say.

The scene which I am now going to relate to you, my dear Louis, was certainly, according to our ideas, a remarkable one. I tell it you just as it happened; but you must not forget that, for the Circassian woman, there was nothing in it which was out of conformity with her principles and the ideas of her race.

“I have come to talk with you,” I said, “upon a serious subject, the importance of which perhaps you do not comprehend; for, without intending it, you are causing Kondje-Gul a great deal of trouble.”

“How am I causing my daughter trouble?” she answered, as if she had been trying to understand.

“By continually telling her that I am going to leave her in order to get married, by telling her that you wish to go away, and have even decided to take her with you. She is of course alarmed by all these imaginary anxieties.”

“If it is so decreed by Allah!” she said quietly, “who shall prevent it?”

I had been expecting denials and subterfuges. This fatalistic utterance, without answering my reproaches, took me quite aback and made me tremble.

“But,” I replied in a severe tone, “Allah could not command you to bring unhappiness to your daughter.”

“As you are going to be married ”

“What matters my marriage?” I answered. “It cannot in any way affect Kondje-Gul’s happiness! She knows that I love her, and that she will always retain the first place in my affections.”

Madame Murrah shook her head for a minute in an undecided manner. The argument which I had employed was a most simple one.

At last she said: “Your wife will be an infidel; and, according to your laws, she will be entitled to demand my daughter’s dismissal.”

Dumb-founded at hearing her raise such objections, when I had fancied that I only needed to express my commands, I gazed at her in complete astonishment.

“But my wife will never know Kondje-Gul!” I exclaimed. “She will live in her own home, and Kondje-Gul will live here, so that nothing will be changed so far as we are concerned.”

Upon this reasoning of mine, which I thought would seem decisive to her, the Circassian reflected for a moment as if embarrassed as to how she should answer me. But suddenly, just when I thought she was convinced, she said:

“All that you have said would be very true, if we were in Turkey; but you know better than I do that in your country, your religion does not permit you to have more than one wife.”

“But,” I exclaimed, more astounded than ever at her language, “do you suppose, then, that Kondje-Gul could ever doubt my honour or my fidelity?”

“My daughter is a child, and believes everything,” she continued. “But, for my own part, I have consulted a lawyer, and have been informed that according to your law she has become as free as a Frenchwoman, and has lost all her rights as cadine which she would have enjoyed in our country. Moreover I am informed that you can abandon her without her being able to claim any compensation from you.”

I was struck dumb by this bold language and the expression with which it was accompanied. This was no longer the apathetic Oriental woman whose obedience I thought I commanded like a master. I had before me another woman whose expression was thoughtful and decided I understood it all.

“While informing you that your daughter is free,” I said, changing my own tone of voice, “this lawyer no doubt informed you also, that you could marry her to Count Kiusko?”

“Oh, I knew that before!” she replied, smiling.

“So you have been deceiving me these two months past, by leaving me to believe that you had answered him with a refusal?”

“It was certainly necessary to prevent you from telling him what he now knows. The silly girl told him everything yesterday.”

“How do you know that?”

I saw her face redden.

“I know it. That’s enough!” she replied defiantly.

Feeling certain that Kondje-Gul had not told her anything of the incident of the day before, I divined that she had just left Kiusko’s, where she had been, no doubt, during our interview.

“May I ask you, then, what you propose to do, now that Count Kiusko knows everything?” I continued, controlling my anger.

“I shall do what my daughter’s happiness impels me to do. You cannot marry her without being obliged to give up your uncle’s fortune. If Count Kiusko should persist in wishing to make her his wife, knowing all the circumstances that he now does, you can understand that I, as her mother, could not but approve of a marriage which would assure her such a rich future.”

At this I could no longer restrain myself, but exclaimed:

“Oh, indeed! Do you imagine I shall let you dispose of her like that, without defending her?”

“No, of course, I know all this. And that’s the very point upon which I consulted a counsel; but, according to what he has advised me, I should like to ask what authority you can claim over my daughter? What rights can you set up against mine?”

“Well, I should like to remind you also that I can ruin your comfortable expectations by killing Count Kiusko,” I said, quite beside myself with rage.

“If so it is written!” she rejoined in a calm voice.

Exasperated by her fatalistic imperturbability, I felt moved by some furious and violent impulse. I got up from my chair to calm myself. I could see that for two months past I had been duped by this woman, who had been pursuing with avidity a vision of unexpected fortune, and that nothing could now divert her from this pursuit. I felt myself caught in their abominable toils.

Sitting motionless on her divan, with her hands folded over her knees, she regarded me in silence.

“Well!” I said, coming close to her again, “I can see that your maternal solicitude is all a question of money. For what sum will you sell me your daughter a second time, and go back to live by yourself in the East?”

She hesitated a moment, and then she said:

“I will tell you in a week’s time.”

By her deceitful looks I judged that she still placed some hope in Kiusko, and that she probably wished to wait until she could make sure about it, one way or the other but from motives of discretion I held my tongue, and took leave of her.