Selaka fixed me with a quick, suspicious glance, and said, coldly,
“My daughter is young; it will be time enough yet to think of marrying her!”
“Then she does not live with you?” I persisted, with pardonable indelicacy.
“She is at present staying with her aunt at Mousoulou,” said Selaka.
I ought to have let the subject drop upon these strong hints, but I went on:
“I am told she is very beautiful.”
“You have been told the truth,” said Selaka.
I saw that further questioning would be indiscreet. However discursive he might be upon the subject of the ancient Greeks, his reticence upon the subject of Inarime was not to be shaken.
Thus passed my three first days in Xinara. Aristides invariably wounded and offended me by his impertinent freedom and his still more impertinent confidences. It appears Aristides is one of Inarime’s admirers, and being promoted to the rank of chief muleteer to his mistress, naturally regards himself as having scored above all his rivals. The early morning was generally spent by me in exploring the neighbouring hills alone. In the afternoon I accompanied Selaka round his small estate. A tranquil, healthy existence it was, and under its influences my late fever and languor left me. With recurrent health I gained in vitality and spirits, and had I not been pursued by an indefinable curiosity—a sense of baffled hope,—I should ere this have been measuring my forces for a return to Athens.