ays ago! Ah, if you only knew how wretched
your coldness made me! Listen: when you came in just now, thinking that
I had lost your love for ever, I was considering how I could kill
myself. But you have forgiven me, have you not?--No, no! don't speak to
me about _them_!" she continued, sharply, seeing that I was about to
answer. "You know very well that I am no longer like them; you have
formed my heart for a different love to that of the harem. I no longer
love you just as they do. No! As for you, you shall love me just as you
please--as your servant, if such is your will. Imprison me, if you like,
as a punishment; all I want is to see you, and to love you. Yes, I was
wrong in striking that Hadidje. You know very well that I am still a
savage, for you have often told me so. Well, then, teach me your own
ideas, your religion. Tell me what you wish me to be?" she added
finally, in tones so soft and tender that I was quite overcome by her.

I was astounded by this language, by this impassioned eloquence which I
had never suspected in her, and which I now heard from her lips for the
first time. The butterfly of love had spread out its wings. Psyche was
born for love! No longer for that passive and vague love which was but
the awakening of the senses and of pleasure, but for that love of the
heart which is life itself, with its sorrows, its joys, and its
ecstacies. I contemplated it full of surprise, experiencing the
fascination of some new enchantment.

Louis, how can I describe it? Within an hour after I had entered
Kondje-Gul's room; our quarrel, her jealousies, her offence, and the
punishment I had resolved upon, were all forgotten!

Nevertheless, appreciating more completely now the defeat to which I had
submitted, I could not fail to perceive the embarrassment which such
strange conduct would cause me. It would, at any rate, be remarkably
awkward for my wives to learn that the violent scene which had passed,
and poor Hadidje's dagger-wound, had actually become the occasion for a
reconciliation with Kondje-Gul. How could I show my face before the
victim to whom it was my duty to grant justice? It was really impossible
for me to show such contempt for _fas_ and _nefas_ as I should do were
I to reward her assault upon Hadidje in such an extraordinary fashion as
by pardoning her. What in the world would Zouhra and Nazli say? It would
be all over with my authority and my reputation.

At any cost, therefore, it was necess