I spoke of a further delay before preparing my poor Kondjé-Gul for the blow. He seemed touched at this token of the sincerity of my entirely filial devotion to him.
The commissary has at last come; we have been discovered!
Yesterday afternoon we were sitting in the garden, under the shade of a little clump of trees. My uncle, in a big arm-chair, was smoking and listening, while I read to him the newspapers, which had just been brought to us. Suddenly Kondjé-Gul, who was standing a few steps off from us, arranging the plants for her window, uttered a suppressed cry, and I saw her run up to me all at once, pale and trembling.
"What's the matter, dear?" I said to her.
"Look there! look there!" she answered, in a terrified voice, pointing towards the house, "my mother!"
At the same moment, on the door-step of the cottage, through which she had passed, and found it empty, appeared the Circassian.
She was accompanied by a man.
"This is my daughter, sir," she said to him.
I sprang forward to throw myself in front of Kondjé-Gul.