French and Oriental Love in a Harem
Page 156"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
"I am all attention, my dear fellow," he answered.
"I have come to speak to you," I continued drily, "about Mademoiselle
Kondjé-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
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
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?"