We form plans innumerable. In the first place we have decided that her
position in regard to my wives shall be definitely fixed, and that she
shall live henceforth separated from them in another part of the house,
where she shall have private attendants. We shall thus be able to see
each other without any constraint, and she will no longer be subjected
to the sneers of my silly houris, who have been treating her apparent
disgrace too brutally since our arrival at Paris. My proud Kondjé-Gul,
in the consciousness of her ascendency over me, would be sure to make a
scene with them some day.
Besides, as I have already told you, she furnishes me every day with a
more and more engrossing subject of study. I should like you to
understand what sweet and seductive labour this progressive initiation
is; I am watching the development of a mind which I am myself forming.
There is no subject in regard to her, not even her receptive
intelligence, which fails to afford me innumerable surprises. Sometimes
I discover original views and opinions of hers upon matters connected
with our European civilisation, at the correctness of which I am
absolutely amazed. Her progress is surprising, and she wishes to learn
everything, knowing how much is required in order to become "civilised,"
as she calls it.
My uncle and my aunt are in Paris.
A month without any news, you say. And you talk sarcastically about my
leisure, and rally me upon the subject of that famous system, which I
used to boast was a simplification of life. If I might judge from your
twaddle, you imagine me to be saddled with the very cares and worries
from which I justly boasted that I was exempt. You picture me running
backwards and forwards, and incessantly occupied with my four wives, so
that I have not even time to write to you.
Absurd fancy: this is my real situation.
As soon as my four wives were settled down in their new home, they
permitted me much more freedom than did the least burdensome of my
former amours. No anxieties now, no jealousies, no fears for the future.
They are not like some of those feminine taskmasters who take entire
possession of you, forcing you to follow the adored object to the
theatre, or take it to the ball, in order to have the pleasure of
watching it flirting bare-shouldered with some intimate friend, who will
perhaps be its next lover. No, in my rôle of sultan my amours are
modestly hidden from profane eyes in the recesses of my harem, and there
I am always welcome whenever I choose to come. I keep the key in my
pocket. At any hour of the day or night I can go there in my quality of
owner without having to leave my club, my friends, my work, or my
amusements a moment earlier than I desire.