Nevertheless, I must admit that the education of their intellects did
not keep pace with the cultivation of their ideas, but rendered them
still liable to commit a number of solecisms. I had an interest,
moreover, in keeping them in a certain degree of ignorance of the actual
laws of our own world. Imbued with their native ideas, their credulity
accepted without hesitation, everything which I chose to tell them about
"the customs of the harems of France," and they conformed to them
without making any pretence to further knowledge of them. None the less,
there began to grow up in their minds ideas of independence and
self-will, the natural consequences of the elevation effected in their
sentiments. The notion of a truer and more tender love was used by them
henceforth as a weapon against my absolute authority. Only too happy to
be treated as a lover rather than a master, I did not feel any loss in
this respect: love is kept alive by these numberless little stratagems
of a woman, who loves and desires--yet desires not--and so forth. And
then, you must remember, I had four wives.
They on their part, having no aims, no ambitions, but to please me, the
sole object of their common love, each tried to effect my conquest in
order to obtain the advantage over her rivals--an emulation of which I
experienced all the charms. Notwithstanding the fact that I distributed
my affections with a rare impartiality, I could not always prevent the
occurrence of jealous quarrels among them. Afterwards ensued regrets
tender reproaches, and clouds of sadness melting into tears. Peace was
restored amid foolish outbursts of mirth. But you cannot realise what a
task it has been for me to preserve the harmony of a well-regulated
household among creatures with their impulsive imaginations, which have
ripened under the heat of their native oriental sun. They have mixed up
their superstitions with those higher principles of which I have
endeavoured to inculcate a notion into their minds, and which they often
interpret in quite a different sense. All this has been the occasion for
the display of charming eccentricities. My little animals have grown
into women, and along with the development of a more intelligent love, I
have seen manifestations of a coquettish mutinous spirit, upon the
slightest evidence of partiality on my part, which they have thought to
detect in me.
I must tell you that Kondjé-Gul, who is really a very intelligent girl,
had begun to study with great ardour, and it naturally followed that she
benefited more from her lessons than the others, who treated them rather
as an amusement. In three months she learnt French tolerably well--she
it was who translated the novels to them. Hence arose a superiority on
her side, which must in any case have produced a good deal of envy among
the others. On the top of this came her famous excursion to the château,
concerning which the silly creature gave them marvellous accounts, in
order to pose as favourite. I should add that Kondjé-Gul, being of an
extremely jealous nature, often gave way to violent fits of passion.
Hadidjé, for some reason or other, more especially excited her
suspicions. Hadidjé has an excitable temperament. Between them,
consequently, a considerable coolness arose: this, however, created
nothing worse than a few clouds on my fine sky. For the passive
domesticities of the harem, I had substituted love; for its obedience,
the free expansions and impulses of the heart.