I forgot to tell you that Kondjé-Gul's mother, Murrah-Hanum, has
arrived. She is a woman of forty-five, tall, with a distinguished
bearing, and rather handsome still. Yet although she has been
Europeanized by her residence at the French consul's at Smyrna, and
speaks our language almost with fluency, she retains in her manners all
the peculiarities of the Circassian and the Asiatic; she has an
easy-going and indolent temperament, and in her large dark eyes you can
read the stern resignation of the fatalist races. When she appeared
before me, she lavished upon me, in Oriental fashion, the most ardent
expressions of devotion. I assured her of my desire to secure to her a
share in all the advantages which I wished to confer upon Kondjé-Gul.
She expressed her gratitude with calmness and dignity, and swore to
observe towards me the submissive obedience which she owed to her
daughter's husband. In short, you can picture the interview for
yourself; it was characterized by all the florid effusiveness of
Mahommedan greetings.