After luncheon her mother had joined her in the drawing-room, when in

the course of a general conversation she began to speak about their

native country and their family, and about the pleasure it would be for

them to revisit them after so long an absence. Kondjé-Gul let her go on

in this strain, thinking that she was just indulging in one of those

dreams of a far-off future which the imagination is fond of cherishing,

however impossible their realisation may be. But soon she was very much

surprised by noticing that her mother was discussing this scheme as one

which might be carried out at an early date. She then questioned her

about it. At last, after a lot of fencing, Madame Murrah informed her

that she had learnt a marriage was arranged between me and Anna

Campbell, who had been betrothed to me for a long while past; also that

this marriage would take place in six months' time, and that I should

have to go away with my wife the day after the wedding.

The end of all these arrangements would be the abandonment of

Kondjé-Gul.

I was dismayed by this unexpected revelation. The plan of my marriage

with Anna had remained a family secret, known only to my uncle, to

herself, to my aunt, and to me. How had it got to Madame Murrah's ears?

I was unable to conceal my uneasiness.

"But this marriage is true then?" continued my poor Kondjé with an

anxious look in my face.

"Nothing is true but our love!" I replied, distressed by her fears;

"nothing is true but this, that I mean to love you always, and always to

live with you as I do now."

"But this marriage?" she again repeated.

It was impossible for me to escape any longer from the necessity of

making a confession which I had intended to have prepared her for later

on.

"Listen, my darling," I said, taking her by the hands, "and above all

things trust me as you listen to me! I love you, I love no one but you;

you are my wife, my happiness, my life. Do you believe me?"

"Yes, dear, I believe you. But what about her?" she added in a tremble.

"What about Anna Campbell? Are you going to marry her?"

"Come," I said, wishing to begin by soothing her fears; "if, as so often

happens in your own country, I were obliged, if only in order to assure

our own happiness, to make another marriage, would not you understand

that this was only a sacrifice which I owed to my uncle if he required

it of me--a family arrangement, in fact, which could not separate us

from each other? What have you to fear so long as I only love you? Did

you trouble yourself about Hadidjé or Zouhra?"




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