I have reopened my letter.
I hope you won't be astonished, my dear fellow, but--I have another
piece of news relating to Barbassou-Pasha.
The day before yesterday, while my uncle and I were chatting together,
as is our custom, before he went to bed, I observed that he yawned in
an unusual manner. I had remarked this symptom before, and I drew my own
conclusion from it, which was that overtaken once more by his
adventurous instincts, he was beginning to find life tedious in the
department of Le Gard,--he was longing for something or other, that was
certain! And I began ransacking my mind to find some new food upon which
he might exercise his all-devouring energy, when he said to me, just
before I left him-"By the bye, André, I have written to your aunt that I am returned. She
will probably arrive some time between now and the end of the week."
"Ah!" I replied; "well, uncle, that's capital! I shall be delighted to
have our family life back again."
"Yes, the house will seem really furnished then," he continued. "Well,
good night, my boy!"
"Good night, uncle."
Then I left him.
Now, although this legitimate conjugal desire of my uncle's was quite
rational on his part, you may nevertheless imagine that I went to bed
rather puzzled. Which of my aunts should I see arrive? My uncle had
acquainted me with this design in such an artless manner that it never
occurred to me to venture any question on the subject. I began therefore
to form conjectures based upon his present frame of mind, as to which of
his wives he had probably selected.
I commenced by setting aside my aunt Cora, of the Isle of Bourbon. It
was not very likely that the Pasha wanted to add to his past ontological
researches upon the coloured races. Excluding also my aunt Christina de
Postero, whose adventure with Jean Bonaffé had brought her into
disgrace, there remained only my aunt Lia Ben Lévy, my aunt Gretchen Van
Cloth, and my aunt Eudoxie de Cornalis, so that the question was now
considerably narrowed. Still I must confess that it was not much use my
setting all my powers of induction to work, taking as my premises the
captain's age, his present tastes, his plans, &c. All I succeeded in
doing was to lose myself in a maze of affirmations and contradictions
from which I could find no way out. The best thing to be done was to
wait. So I waited.