"I have come to talk with you," I said, "upon a serious subject, the importance of which perhaps you do not comprehend; for, without intending it, you are causing Kondjé-Gul a great deal of trouble."
"How am I causing my daughter trouble?" she answered, as if she had been trying to understand.
"By continually telling her that I am going to leave her in order to get married,—by telling her that you wish to go away, and have even decided to take her with you. She is of course alarmed by all these imaginary anxieties."
"If it is so decreed by Allah!" she said quietly, "who shall prevent it?"
I had been expecting denials and subterfuges. This fatalistic utterance, without answering my reproaches, took me quite aback and made me tremble.
"But," I replied in a severe tone, "Allah could not command you to bring unhappiness to your daughter."
"As you are going to be married——"
"What matters my marriage?" I answered. "It cannot in any way affect Kondjé-Gul's happiness! She knows that I love her, and that she will always retain the first place in my affections."
Madame Murrah shook her head for a minute in an undecided manner. The argument which I had employed was a most simple one.
At last she said: "Your wife will be an infidel; and, according to your laws, she will be entitled to demand my daughter's dismissal."