ncts that
we are ignorant of ourselves. We first become attached to it by our
organs, to which it affords secret gratifications which we do not inquire
into. The air and the climate overcome our flesh, in spite of ourselves,
and the bright light with which it is inundated keeps the mind clear and
fresh, at but little cost. It penetrates us continually by our eyes, and
one might really say that it cleanses the somber nooks of the soul."

"But what about women?"

"Ah...! There is rather a dearth of them!"

"Only _rather_?"

"Well, yes ... rather. For one can always, even among the Arabs, find
some complaisant, native women, who think of the nights of Roumi."

He turned to the Arab, who was waiting on me, who was a tall, dark
fellow, with bright, black eyes, that flashed beneath his turban, and
said to him:

"I will call you when I want you, Mohammed." And then, turning to me, he
said:

"He understands French, and I am going to tell you a story in which he
plays a leading part."

As soon as the man had left the room, he began:

"I had been here about four years, and scarcely felt quite settled yet
in this country, whose language I was beginning to speak, and forced, in
order not to break altogether with those passions that had been fatal to
me in other places, to go to Algiers for a few days, from time to time.

"I had bought this farm, this _bordj_, which had been a fortified post,
and was within a few hundred yards from the native encampment, whose man
I employ to cultivate my land. Among the tribe that had settled here, and
which formed a portion of the Oulad-Taadja, I chose, as soon as I arrived
here, that tall fellow whom you have just seen, Mohammed ben Lam'har, who
soon became greatly attached to me. As he would not sleep in a house, not
being accustomed to it, he pitched his tent a few yards from my house, so
that I might be able to call him from my window.

"You can guess what my life was, I dare say? Every day I was busy with
cleanings and plantations; I hunted a little, I used to go and dine with
the officers of the neighboring fortified posts, or else they came and
dined with me. As for pleasures ... I have told you what they consisted
in. Algiers offered me some which were rather more refined, and from time
to time a complaisant and compassionate Arab would stop me when I was out
for a walk, and offer to bring one of the women of his tribe to my house
at night. Sometimes I accepted, but more frequ