e returned to her own people four times
in this fashion.

"I took her back, gladly, without any feelings of jealousy, for with me
jealousy can only spring from love as we Europeans understand it. I might
very likely have killed her if I had surprised her in the act of
deceiving me, but I should have done it, just as one half kills a
disobedient dog, from sheer violence. I should not have felt those
torments, that consuming fire--Northern jealousy. I have just said that
I should have killed her like a disobedient dog, and, as a matter of
fact, I loved her somewhat in the same manner as one loves some very
highly bred horse or dog, which it is impossible to replace. She was a
splendid animal, a sensual animal, an animal made for pleasure, and which
possessed the body of a woman.

"I cannot tell you what an immeasurable distance separated our two souls,
although our hearts perhaps occasionally warmed towards each other. She
was something belonging to my house, she was part of my life, she had
become a very agreeable, daily, regular requirement with me, to which I
clung, and which the sensual man in me loved, that in me which was only
eyes and sensuality.

"Well, one morning, Mohammed came into my room with a strange look on his
face, that uneasy look of the Arabs, which resembles the furtive look of
a cat, face to face with a dog, and when I noticed his expression, I
said:

"'What is the matter, now?'

"'Allouma has gone away.'

"I began to laugh, and said:--'Where has she gone to?'

"'Gone away altogether, _mo'ssieuia_!'

"'What do you mean by _gone away altogether_; you are mad, my man.'

"'No, _mo'ssieuia_.'

"'Why has she gone away? Just explain yourself; come!'

"He remained motionless, and evidently did not wish to speak, and then he
had one of those explosions of Arab rage, which make us stop in streets
in front of two demoniacs, whose oriental silence and gravity suddenly
give place to the most violent gesticulations, and the most ferocious
vociferations, and I gathered, amidst his shouts, that Allouma had run
away with my shepherd, and when I had partially succeeded in calming
him, I managed to extract the facts from him one by one.

"It was a long story, but at last I gathered that he had been watching my
mistress, who used to meet a sort of vagabond whom my steward had hired
the month before, behind the neighboring cactus woods, or in the ravine
where the oleanders flourished. The night before, Mo