Perhaps you will say that we need not see in these irregularities
anything more than a sort of licensed depravity, tolerated for the sake
of maintaining a virtuous ideal. But consider the fatal consequences of
this hypocrisy. What becomes of our aspirations of the age of twenty, of
our dreams and poetic fancies, after we have plunged into these wretched
connections, these degrading, promiscuous attachments which form the
current of our present habits, and from which we emerge at the age of
thirty, sceptics, and with hearts and souls tarnished? What do we reap
from these frenzies of unhealthy passion, but contempt for woman, and
disbelief in anything virtuous?
For the Turk there is no such thing as illegitimate love, and woman is
the object of absolute respect. Never having more than one master, she
cannot fall in his esteem. Having been bought as a slave, she becomes a
wife directly she sets foot in the harem; her rights are sacred, and she
cannot any more be abandoned. The laws protect her; she has a recognised
position, a title; her children are legitimate, and if by chance-I suspend this philosophical digression, in order to inform you of a
momentous occurrence. El-Nouzha has just been the scene of a sanguinary
drama. A rebellion has broken out among my sultanas.
My harem is on strike.
You will ask me how this storm came to break upon me just as I was
settling down into the most innocent and tranquil frame of mind? It can
only be explained by a retrospective survey of certain domestic
circumstances, which the changes that have been going on at Férouzat had
caused me to overlook.
You will not have forgotten the terrible commotion caused in my harem by
the news of my uncle's resurrection. My poor houris, dreading some fatal
drama of the usual Turkish character, had indeed passed through a cruel
time of distress and anguish. When their alarms were dissipated, a
revival of animation soon manifested itself in their spirits; but, as
ill-luck would have it, and as I have told you, one little detail of
this day's proceedings, unimportant as it appeared at the time, was
destined to disturb their harmony, so perfect hitherto, and to arouse
their jealousies. Kondjé-Gul had been to the château, and a silly
ambition to attempt the same freak had got into the heads of Nazli and
Zouhra. I at once expressed a decided opposition to this childish
scheme; but, of course, from the moment it met with opposition, it
developed into a fixed purpose.
Within the limited circle of ideas in which they move, their
imaginations had been excited--curiosity, the attractions of forbidden
fruit. The long and the short of it was that, at the sight of their
genuine disappointment--a disappointment aggravated by continual and
jealous suspicions of a preference on my part for Kondjé-Gul--I had
almost made up my mind to yield for one occasion, when my aunt arrived,
which at once put an end to any thought of such good-natured but weak
concessions.