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Updated: May 26, 2025
Kiusko came to the house, being sent for at once; all of which pretty clearly indicates an understanding between them. The Circassian of course rushed after me to the Rue de Varennes, noisily demanding her daughter. So my aunt got to know all about it! My uncle, whom I had taken into my confidence, put them at once completely off the scent, by replying that I had started for Spain. We are safe!
That would have been sufficient to upset all her ideas, for don't you know that in the East it is the husband, on the contrary, who always makes a present to the parents of the girl he wants to have? This arrangement, by the way, seems to me more chivalrous and more manly. Kiusko, for that matter, cares about as much for money as for a straw: he loves her, and that is enough for him."
Her personal independence, the wealth which her mother's establishment indicated, and her youth, all seemed to leave the field open to sanguine hopes, and to attempts to win her hand, to the open acknowledgment of which no obstacle appeared. Nevertheless, well prepared as I was for such attempts, and fully expecting to witness them, I was very much affected by the news that Kiusko was my rival.
I took care to watch Kiusko as he saluted Kondjé-Gul. He blushed and stammered out a compliment addressed collectively to all the three girls. Kondjé's countenance betrayed nothing more than the flush produced by her ride. We started off in two separate parties. From motives of discretion, I suppose, Kiusko remained behind with Suzannah and the commodore.
A fortnight has passed since the intervention of the commissary. Kiusko has gone: he disappeared one morning. My aunt Eudoxia, who has taken us under her special care, goes to see Kondjé-Gul every day at the convent. She is charming in her kindness to us, but still we have our anxieties.
To proclaim Kondjé-Gul to be my mistress would be to banish her from the society into which she had won her way: it would have wounded her spirit to the quick and determined her degradation, without reason or advantage either for Kiusko or for myself. Moreover, did I not owe a stricter fidelity to her than to this friend of yesterday?
I gained credit with Kiusko by taking him into my confidence, and telling him that I had in truth a liaison with a young widow, whose high position in society demanded extreme prudence on my part. With the tact of a thorough-bred gentleman, he never referred to the subject again.
It was clear to me that the news of the marriage arranged between Anna Campbell and myself could only have reached Madame Murrah through Kiusko. His relationship with my aunt had made him a member of our family, and he had been acquainted with our projects. I could easily understand that his jealous instincts had penetrated one side of the secret between Kondjé and myself.
I knew that after all we were so unequally matched, that I need not seriously fear his success. However determined Kiusko might be not to abandon the cowardly rôle he had assumed, I felt sure that an open affront at the club would compel him to fight.
"Yes, dear, I will defend you," I exclaimed in a passion, "and now set your mind at ease. There is a miserable plot at the bottom of all this, which I intend demolishing. When I leave you I am going to Count Kiusko, and I assure you that he sha'n't trouble you any more: after that I shall see your mother." "Good heavens!" said Kondjé-Gul, "are you going to fight him?"
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