lips, which curled slightly, close to
my face, she said: "You must come and stay at my house." I did not
understand her, and asked: "What do you mean?" "Yes, when my husband has
gone away; you must come and be with me."

I could not help laughing, and said: "Why, as you come here?" And she
went on almost talking into my mouth, sending her hot breath into my
throat, and moistening my moustache with her lips: "I want it as a
remembrance." Still I did not grasp her meaning; she put her arms round
my neck. "When you are no longer here, I shall think of it."

I was touched and amused at the same time, and said: "You must be mad. I
would much rather stop here."

As a matter of fact, I have no liking for assignations under the
conjugal roof; they are mouse-traps, in which the unwary are always
caught. But she begged and prayed, and even cried, and at last said:
"You shall see how I will love you there." Her wish seemed so strange
that I could not explain it to myself; but on thinking it over, I
thought I could discern a profound hatred for her husband, the secret
vengeance of a woman who takes a pleasure in deceiving him, and who,
moreover, wishes to deceive him in his own house.

"Is your husband very unkind to you?" I asked her. She looked vexed, and
said: "Oh! No, he is very kind." "But you are not fond of him?" She
looked at me with astonishment in her large eyes. "Indeed, I am very
fond of him, very; but not so fond as I am of you."

I could not understand it all, and while I was trying to get at her
meaning, she pressed one of those kisses, whose power she knew so well,
onto my lips, and whispered: "But you will come, will you not?" I
resisted, however, and so she got up immediately, and went away; nor did
she come back for a week. On the eighth day she came back, stopped
gravely at the door of my room, and said: "Are you coming to my house
to-night? ... If you refuse, I shall go away." Eight days is a very long
time, my friend, and in Africa those eight days are as good as a month.
"Yes," I said, and opened my arms, and she threw herself into them.

At night she waited for me in a neighboring street, and took me to their
house, which was very small, and near the harbor. I first of all went
through the kitchen, where they had their meals, and then into a very
tidy, whitewashed room, with photographs on the walls, and paper flowers
under a glass case. Marroca seemed beside herself with pleasure, and she
jumped abou