I must tell you that there are some barracks in the Rue de Babylone;
from which it follows that a great many officers lodge in the vicinity.
Moreover, the garden of my house, although enclosed by a wall on the
boulevard side, is not sufficiently screened to prevent daring eyes from
peering into it from various neighbouring windows.
Now, as a few days of sunshine had favoured us with very mild weather,
my houris did not fail to go and stroll about the lawns. Naturally
enough they attracted the attention of some indiscreet persons whose
curiosity had been quickened by the apparent mystery of this closed
house, and by all the gossip in the neighbourhood about "the Turk." It
also happens that the house adjoining mine is tenanted by the colonel,
whence it results that from morn to eve, there is a constant coming and
going of sergeant-majors, lieutenants and captains, who rival one
another in casting fascinating glances upon this corner of Mahomet's
paradise.
I must do my houris the justice to say that they do not show themselves
unveiled; still I will leave you to imagine the agitation which they
cause among the whole regimental staff.
All this was certainly but an inconvenience which pure chance threw in
my way, amid my methodical experiments with the new manners and customs
of which I wish to show the superiority. It would not have been fitting
for a sincere psychologist to convert a purely adventitious difficulty
into a defeat; and the removal of my harem would have furnished a
specious argument for some detractor of my doctrines who would not have
failed to seize hold of this slight practical obstacle in order to raise
a controversy. Then, too, I should have been violating human dignity and
confessing the fragility of my system of social renovation if I had so
lowered myself as to completely sequestrate the women after the fashion
of some vile Asiatic satrap.
To be brief, I stood firm; and I conscientiously instructed Mohammed,
who was already alarmed, not to interfere with the freedom of their
diversions in the garden.
Being confident in the healthy effects of an application of the immortal
principles, I had ceased to busy myself about this affair, when, as I
arrived in the evening three days ago, I saw Mohammed hasten to me,
looking scared. With signs of acute emotion, he begged of me to hear him
privately, having an important communication to make.
I entered his room where I invited him to unbosom himself.
He then informed me--in a tone of genuine despair, I will admit--that
the honour of the harem and also his own were terribly compromised. In
point of fact, he had during the day surprised Zouhra at her window
corresponding by signs with a young and superb nobleman who had come to
one of the windows of the neighbouring house. This audacious lover,
judging by his military uniform, bedizened with gold lace, must at the
least be a muchir or general.