res with their impulsive imaginations, which have
ripened under the heat of their native oriental sun. They have mixed up
their superstitions with those higher principles of which I have
endeavoured to inculcate a notion into their minds, and which they often
interpret in quite a different sense. All this has been the occasion for
the display of charming eccentricities. My little animals have grown
into women, and along with the development of a more intelligent love, I
have seen manifestations of a coquettish mutinous spirit, upon the
slightest evidence of partiality on my part, which they have thought to
detect in me.

I must tell you that Kondje-Gul, who is really a very intelligent girl,
had begun to study with great ardour, and it naturally followed that she
benefited more from her lessons than the others, who treated them rather
as an amusement. In three months she learnt French tolerably well--she
it was who translated the novels to them. Hence arose a superiority on
her side, which must in any case have produced a good deal of envy among
the others. On the top of this came her famous excursion to the chateau,
concerning which the silly creature gave them marvellous accounts, in
order to pose as favourite. I should add that Kondje-Gul, being of an
extremely jealous nature, often gave way to violent fits of passion.
Hadidje, for some reason or other, more especially excited her
suspicions. Hadidje has an excitable temperament. Between them,
consequently, a considerable coolness arose: this, however, created
nothing worse than a few clouds on my fine sky. For the passive
domesticities of the harem, I had substituted love; for its obedience,
the free expansions and impulses of the heart.

I must add, however, that while rising to purer conceptions of truth, my
houris retained too much of their native instincts not to get their
heads turned somewhat by the novelty of their situation. Having equal
rights, they claimed the same rank in my esteem. From this it resulted
that Hadidje, Nazli, and Zouhra at last took umbrage at the success of
Kondje-Gul, who was wrong in trying to outstrip them. "Kondje-Gul," they
proclaimed, "wishes to act the _savante_. Kondje-Gul gives herself the
airs of a legitimate Sultana." I must confess that the said little
coquette was only too careful to impress them with her successes, of
which she was rather proud. One evening she sat down to the piano, and,
with a careless air, played part of