erouzat the next year. My
uncle welcomed me with the same delight, and betook himself to the same
examination of my physical structure. When his anxieties were satisfied,
he said to me--

"Kiss your aunt!"

I kissed my aunt: but, as I kissed her, I was rather surprised to find
her very much altered. She had become fair and pink-complexioned. A
certain firm and youthful plumpness, which suited her remarkably well,
gave her the appearance of a girl of eighteen. Being more bashful than
at our former interview, she tendered me her fresh cheeks with a blush.
I noticed also that her accent had undergone a modification, and now
very much resembled the accent of one of my school-fellows who was
Dutch. As I expressed my surprise at these changes, my uncle informed me
that they had just returned from Java. This explanation sufficed for me,
I did not ask any more questions, and henceforth I accustomed myself
every year to the various metamorphoses of my aunt. The metamorphosis
which pleased me the least was that which she contracted after a voyage
to Bourbon, from which she returned a mulattress, but without ceasing
still to be remarkably handsome. My uncle, it should be mentioned, was
always very good to her, and I have never known a happier household.

Unfortunately Barbassou-Pasha, being engaged in important affairs,
stayed away three years, and when I returned to Ferouzat, he kissed me
and received me by himself. When I asked after my aunt, he told me that
he was a widower. As this misfortune did not appear to affect him very
seriously, I made up my mind to treat it with the same indifference that
he did.

Since that time I never saw any woman at the chateau, except once in an
isolated part of the park, where I met two shadowy beings, closely and
mysteriously veiled. They were taking a walk, accompanied by an old
fellow of singular aspect, clothed in a long robe with a _tarbouch_ on
his head, who greatly excited my curiosity. My uncle told me that this
was His Excellency, Mohammed-Azis, one of his friends at Constantinople,
whom he had taken in with his family after they had undergone
persecution at the hands of the Sultan. He lodged him in another little
chateau adjoining Ferouzat, in order that they might be able to live
more comfortably in Turkish style: those young persons were two of his
daughters.

After that year, I never again stayed in Provence: for my uncle, having
settled in China and Japan, was absent five ye