to the revelations of
our customs and habits contained in novels of my selection, which
Kondje-Gul read to them during my hours of absence, and to which they
listened with admiration (for they were eager to know all about this
world of ours, which was as yet unknown to them), I soon obtained a
charming combination. Their strange exotic mixture of oriental graces,
blending happily with efforts to imitate the refinements of our
civilisation, their artless tokens of ignorance, their coquettish and
feline instincts, their voluptuous bearing in process of attempted
transformation into bashful reserve, all these phenomena afforded me the
most delightful subject for study ever entered on by a philosopher.

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 creatu