"Oh, but they were not Christians! Anna Campbell would be your real
wife; and your religion and laws would enjoin you to love her."
"No," I exclaimed, "neither my religion nor my laws could change my
heart or undo my love for you. It is my duty to protect your life and
make it a happy one; for are not you also my wife? Why should you alarm
yourself about an obligation of mine which, if we lived in your country,
would not disturb your confidence in me? Anna Campbell is not really in
love with me: we are only like two friends, prepared to unite with each
other in a conventional union, such as you may see many a couple around
us enter upon--an association of fortunes, in which the only personal
sentiments demanded are reciprocal esteem. My dear girl, what is there
to be jealous of? Don't you know that you will always be everything to
me?"
Poor Kondjé-Gul listened to these somewhat strange projects without the
least idea of opposing them. Still under the yoke of her native ideas,
those Oriental prejudices in which she had been brought up were too
deeply grafted in her mind to permit of her being rapidly converted by
acquaintance with our sentiments and usages--very illogical as they
often appeared to her mind--to a different view of woman's destiny.
According to her laws and her religion, I was her master. She could
never have entertained the possibility of her refusing to submit to my
will; but I could see by the tears in her eyes that this very touching
submission and resignation on her part was simply due to her devoted
self-control, and that she suffered cruelly by it.
"Come, why do you keep on crying?" I continued, drawing her into my
arms. "Do you doubt my love, dear?"
"Oh, no!" she replied quickly. "How could I mistrust you?"
"Well, then, away with those tears!"
"Yes," she said, giving me a kiss, "you are right, dear: I am very
silly! What can you expect of me? I am still half a barbarian, and am
rather bewildered with all I have learnt from you. There are still some
things in my nature which I can't understand. Why it is that I feel more
jealous of Anna Campbell than I was of Hadidjé, of Nazli, or of Zouhra,
I can't tell you; but I am afraid--she is a Christian, and perhaps you
will love her better than me. I feel that the laws and customs of your
country will recover their hold over you and will separate us. That
odious law which you once told me of, which would enfranchise me, so you
said, and make me my own mistress if I desired to leave you, often comes
back to my mind like a bad dream. It seems to me that this imaginary
liberty, which I don't want at any price, would become a reality if you
get married."