hat I have to do
now. Since I am spied upon and treated in this fashion I have had enough
of leading such a life--I prefer to put an end to it at once!"

"And how do you purpose putting an end to it?" I resumed. "It will
perhaps be necessary to consult me a little bit on that subject."

"But you are neither my husband nor my brother, my dear fellow," she
exclaimed in the most airy way imaginable, "and I don't suppose that you
are going to talk to me any more of those stupid Turkish rights. We are
in Paris and I know that I am free!"

"Well, where will your freedom take you?"

"Oh! don't worry yourself about me--I should not have any trouble to
secure a husband. Do you imagine, my dear fellow, that I should be
embarrassed to find a _position_?"

This characteristic word showed me that she was far more completely
initiated than I had suspected.

"And you expect," I retorted, "to obtain this _position_ from that fine
nobleman, eh?"

These disdainful words exasperated her; she lost all self-restraint and
burnt her ships.

"That fine nobleman is a duke!" she exclaimed vehemently. "I will not
allow you to insult him. And since you dare to threaten me, I will tell
you that I love him and that he adores me, and that he offers to marry
me and promises me every bliss--"

In spite of my misfortune I could not help laughing at this fiery
indignant declaration to which Zouhra's Turkish accent imparted an
irresistibly comic effect. My gaiety brought her anger to a climax.

Frenzied, decided upon everything, she darted to a chiffonier, drew out
an illuminated card, upon which two doves were pecking one another, and
threw it at me with a queenly air, exclaiming:

"There, my dear fellow you will see if I still have any need of you!"

I picked up the card and read what was written upon it:

LEDUC (D'ARPAJON),

_Drum-Major of the 79th Regt. of the Line._

_To the divine ZOUHRA--Everlasting Love!_

It would be useless for me to describe to you the end of the scene.

When I had laughed enough, I allowed myself the delightful pleasure of
undeceiving my faithless houri by explaining to her her unfortunate
mistake as to the rank of her conqueror, whom she had mentally endowed
with a fortune in keeping with the height of his plume.[A] I destroyed
her dream of every bliss by reducing it to so much bliss as was
procurable with a full pay of a franc and a half _per diem_.

[Footnote A: Zouhra with her imperfe