if only
just aware of his presence, "Faringhea! you here!--what is the matter?"

"Your faithful servant shares in your joy, my lord."

"What joy?"

"That which the letter of Mdlle. de Cardoville has occasioned, my lord."

Djalma returned no answer, but his eye shone with so much serene
happiness, that the half-caste recovered from his apprehensions. No
cloud of doubt or suspicion obscured the radiant features of the prince.
After a few moments of silence, Djalma fixed upon the half-caste a look
half-veiled with a tear of joy, and said to him, with the expression of
one whose heart overflows with love and happiness: "Oh! such delight is
good--great--like heaven!--for it is heaven which--"

"You deserve this happiness, my lord, after so many sufferings."

"What sufferings?--Oh! yes. I formerly suffered at Java; but that was
years ago."

"My lord, this great good fortune does not astonish me. What have I
always told you? Do not despair; feign a violent passion for some other
woman, and then this proud young lady--"

At these words Djalma looked at the half-caste with so piercing a
glance, that the latter stopped short; but the prince said to him with
affectionate goodness, "Go on! I listen."

Then, leaning his chin upon his hand, and his elbow on his knee, he
gazed so intently on Faringhea, and yet with such unutterable mildness,
that even that iron soul was touched for a moment with a slight feeling
of remorse.

"I was saying, my lord," he resumed, "that by following the counsels of
your faithful slave, who persuaded you to feign a passionate love for
another woman, you have brought the proud Mdlle. de Cardoville to come
to you. Did I not tell you it would be so?"

"Yes, you did tell me so," answered Djalma, still maintaining the same
position, and examining the half-caste with the same fixed and mild
attention.

The surprise of Faringhea increased; generally, the prince, without
treating him with the least harshness, preserved the somewhat distant
and imperious manners of their common country, and he had never before
spoken to him with such extreme mildness. Knowing all the evil he
had done the prince, and suspicious as the wicked must ever be, the
half-caste thought for a moment, that his master's apparent kindness
might conceal a snare. He continued, therefore, with less assurance,
"Believe me, my lord, this day, if you do but know how to profit by your
advantages, will console you for all your troubles,