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Then he laughed, for he saw that she had not noticed it. Then he looked grave, and wondering, and doubtful. The idea of Adolphus Montier's pretty wife and pretty daughter changing their pretty home for life in the dark prison startled him. He seemed to think it no less wrong than strange.
It was hardly probable that he would very energetically strive to procure the reversal of a hard sentence in behalf of such a man. As Adolphus Montier's daughter came into his presence, she had not the bearing common to such as appeared there with intent to plead for the life or liberty of those they loved. A sense of the sacredness of her mission was upon her.
Nevertheless, her desire for further instruction remained very keen. Finally, two days afterwards, Mademoiselle Kondjé-Gul entered Madame Montier's institution, having been presented by her guardian, the worthy Omer-Rashid-Effendi, who made all the necessary arrangements with the majestic dignity which he displays on every occasion.
She was a seamstress before the days of Foray and the Drummer, and still continued to ply her needle, though no longer urged by necessity. She sewed for the officers' wives, she knit stockings and mufflers for the soldiers. The income thus derived independently of Montier's public service was very considerable.
She is completing her "civilisation" with industrious zeal. Every morning, from eight o'clock to twelve, is devoted to work; governesses from Madame Montier's come to continue her course of lessons; then from one to two she practises on the piano.
Finally, towards the middle of the entertainment, when he was going away with his daughters and Kondjé-Gul, whom he had to see home to Madame Montier's, I had, without meaning it, so completely won his good opinion, that I found myself invited to accompany my aunt who was dining with him the next day but one.
Placed face to face with the inexorable logic of facts, I could not long deceive myself as to the course which the most elementary sense of delicacy prescribed to me. I could see clearly during this last evening party, that Kondjé-Gul had no further need of Madame Montier's lessons to complete her social education.
A few months at Madame Montier's will be sufficient for this purpose, and the cultivation of her mind can be completed later on by private lessons. My harem in the Faubourg St. Germain retains its Oriental aspect; it is a corner of the world described in the "Arabian Nights," where I indulge from time to time, in the midst of Paris, in the distractions of a vizier of Samarcand or Bagdad.
So love defers to love, with divine courtesy, through all celestial movements. After playing a few airs, Montier's anticipated evening ended, and another set in. The sympathies of a condition, the opposite to that of which he had been so happily conscious, pressed too closely against him.
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