French and Oriental Love in a Harem

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.