You are returning once more, my dear Louis, to your favourite occupation of knocking down skittles which you have set up yourself, and are trying to exercise your humorous spirit at my expense.
You tell me that my Oriental system of life crumbles away upon contact with the hard world, and with those sentiments which I venture to class among the antiquated prejudices of a worn-out civilisation.
You do not perceive, you subtle scoffer, that every one of your arguments can be turned against you to establish the superiority of the customs of the harem. Can't you see that all these mishaps, these troubles, and these outbursts of jealousy, which you have intentionally magnified, originate solely in Kondjé-Gul's emancipation from the harem, and that none of them would have occurred if I had not departed from Turkish usages? Consider on the one hand the tranquillity of my amours with Zouhra, Nazli, and Hadidjé, my easy life with them, as a poet and a sultan, secure from all annoying rivalries, and on the other hand look at these difficulties and contests arising all at once out of our social conventionalities.
I do not really know why I should waste any more time discussing the question with you.
Being now confident that after the declaration which Madame Murrah would next day make to my aunt, Kondjé-Gul would be freed henceforth from the importunities of Count Kiusko, I soon recovered my peace of mind. I entertained no doubts as to the effect which such a decisive answer would produce upon Daniel. I knew that he was too deeply in love not to feel the blow severely.
I expected, accordingly, to hear that he was mourning in some secluded retreat over his lost hopes. For him to see Kondjé-Gul again after such an unqualified refusal would only revive his sorrows and cause him more suffering. More than this, it would place her in an uncomfortable position since his declaration of love to her. But while I was convincing myself as to this necessity for him to break off his relations with her, great was my surprise at seeing him reappear among us the following day as calm as ever, and just as if no unpleasant incident had befallen him. Time went on, and still there was no change in this respect. One might even have said, to judge from his easy demeanour and from a certain increase of assurance in his manner, that he felt confident in the future success of his endeavours, and was only waiting for the happy moment when his aspirations would be realized.
I could not help being puzzled by this remarkable result of a decided rejection of his suit, but as I had so plainly avoided my rival's confidences in my embarrassment at the part I was playing, I could not now attempt to regain them. I began to suspect that Kondjé-Gul's mother had rehearsed her part imperfectly, and at last made up my mind to question my aunt discreetly on this point.
"By the by, my dear aunt," I said to her one morning in a perfectly unconcerned tone of voice, "you have not told me anything more about Kiusko's intended marriage."
"Ah, there is no longer any question of it!" she answered me. "He presented himself too late: the fair Kondjé-Gul's heart is occupied. She is even engaged to one of her own relations I hear."
"Then he seems to me to be bearing his disappointment very easily."