would not have believed me.'

"Seeing that I was not angry, she began to laugh, and said:

"'You see that is all over; I have come home again, and here I am. I only
wanted a few days there. I have had enough of it now, it is finished and
passed; the feeling is cured. I have come back, and have not that longing
any more. I am very glad, and you are very kind.'

"'Come into the house,' I said to her.

"She got up, and I took her hand, her delicate hand, with its slender
fingers, and triumphant in her rags, with her bracelets and her necklace
ringing, she went gravely towards my house, where Mohammed was waiting
for us, but before going in, I said:

"'Allouma, whenever you want to return to your own people, tell me, and
I will allow you to go.'

"'You promise?'

"'Yes, I promise.'

"'And I will make you a promise also. When I feel ill or unhappy'--and
here she put her hand to her forehead, with a magnificent gesture--'I
shall say to you: "I must go yonder," and you will let me go.'

"I went with her to her room, followed by Mohammed, who was
carrying some water, for there had been no time to tell the wife of
Abd-el-Kader-el-Hadam that her mistress had returned. As soon as she got
into the room, and saw the wardrobe with the looking-glass in the door,
she ran up to it, like a child does when it sees its mother. She looked
at herself for a few seconds, made a grimace, and then in a rather cross
voice, she said to the looking-glass:

"'Just you wait a moment; I have some silk dresses in the wardrobe.
I shall be beautiful in a few minutes.'

"And I left her alone, to act the coquette to herself.

"Our life began its usual course again, as formerly, and I felt more and
more under the influence of the strange, merely physical attractions of
that girl, for whom, at the same time, I felt a kind of paternal
contempt. For two months all went well, and then I felt that she was
again becoming nervous, agitated, and rather low-spirited, and one day
I said to her:--

"'Do you want to return home again?'

"'Yes.'

"'And you did not dare to tell me?'

"'I did not venture to.'

"'Go, if you wish to; I give you leave.'

"She seized my hands and kissed them, as she did in all her outbursts of
gratitude, and the same morning she disappeared.

"She came back, as she had done the first time, at the end of about three
weeks, in rags, covered with dust, and satiated with her Nomad life of
sand and liberty. In two years sh