""Do you know where Allouma is?"
""No, _mo"ssieuia_ ... it is not possible ... is Allouma lost?"
"A few moments later, my Arab came into my room, so agitated that he could not master his feelings, and I said:
""Is Allouma lost?"
""Yes, she is lost."
""It is impossible."
""Go and look for her," I said.
"He remained standing where he was, thinking, seeking for her motives, and unable to understand anything about it. Then he went into the empty room, where Allouma"s clothes were lying about, in oriental disorder. He examined everything, as if he had been a police officer, or, rather, he smelt like a dog, and then, incapable of a lengthened effort, he murmured, resignedly:--
""She has gone, she has gone!"
"I was afraid that some accident had happened to her; that she had fallen into some ravine and sprained herself, and I immediately sent all the men about the place off with orders to look for her until they should find her, and they hunted for her all that night, all the next day, and all the week long, but nothing was discovered that could put us upon her track. I suffered, for I missed her very much; my house seemed empty, and my existence a void. And then, disgusting thoughts entered my mind. I feared that she might have been carried off, or even murdered, but when I spoke about it to Mohammed, and tried to make him share my fears, he invariably replied:
""No; gone away."
"Then he added the Arab word _r"ezale_, which means _gazelle_, as if he meant to say that she could run quickly, and that she was far away.
"Three weeks pa.s.sed, and I had given up all hopes of seeing my Arab mistress again, when one morning Mohammed came into my room, with every sign of joy in his face, and said to me:
""_Mo"ssieuia_, Allouma has come back."
"I jumped out of bed and said:
""Where is she?"
""She does not dare to come in! There she is, under the tree."
"And stretching out his arm, he pointed out to me, through the window, a whitish spot at the foot of an olive tree.
"I got up immediately, and went out to where she was. As I approached what looked like a mere bundle of linen thrown against the gnarled trunk of the tree, I recognized the large, dark eyes, the tattooed stars, and the long, regular features of that semi-wild girl who had so captivated my senses. As I advanced towards her, I felt inclined to strike her, to make her suffer pain, and to have my revenge, and so I called out to her from a little distance:
""Where have you been?"
"She did not reply, but remained motionless and inert, as if she were scarcely alive, resigned to my violence, and ready to receive my blows.
I was standing up, close to her, looking in stupefaction at the rags with which she was covered, at those bits of silk and muslin, covered with dust, torn and dirty, and I repeated, raising my hand, as if she had been a dog:
""Where have you come from?"
""From yonder," she said, in a whisper.
""Where is that?"
""From the tribe."
""What tribe?"
""Mine."
""Why did you go away?"
"When she saw that I was not going to beat her, she grew rather bolder, and said in a low voice: ""I was obliged to do it.... I was forced to go, I could not stop in the house any longer."
"I saw tears in her eyes, and immediately felt softened. I leaned over her, and when I turned round to sit down, I noticed Mohammed, who was watching us at a distance, and I went on, very gently:
""Come, tell me why you ran away?"
"Then she told me, that for a long time in her Nomad"s heart she had felt the irresistible desire to return to the tents, to lie, to run, to roll on the sand; to wander about the plains with the flocks, to feel nothing over her head, between the yellow stars in the sky and the blue stars in her face, except the thin, threadbare, patched stuff, through which she could see spots of fire in the sky, when she awoke during the night.
"She made me understand all that in such simple and powerful words, that I felt quite sure that she was not lying, and pitied her, and I asked her:
""Why did you not tell me that you wished to go away for a time?"
""Because you would not have allowed me..."
""If you had promised to come back, I should have consented."
""You would not have believed me."
"Seeing that I was not angry, she began to laugh, and said:
""You see that is all over; I have come home again, and here I am. I only wanted a few days there. I have had enough of it now, it is finished and pa.s.sed; the feeling is cured. I have come back, and have not that longing any more. I am very glad, and you are very kind."
""Come into the house," I said to her.
"She got up, and I took her hand, her delicate hand, with its slender fingers, and triumphant in her rags, with her bracelets and her necklace ringing, she went gravely towards my house, where Mohammed was waiting for us, but before going in, I said:
""Allouma, whenever you want to return to your own people, tell me, and I will allow you to go."
""You promise?"
""Yes, I promise."
""And I will make you a promise also. When I feel ill or unhappy"--and here she put her hand to her forehead, with a magnificent gesture--"I shall say to you: "I must go yonder," and you will let me go."
"I went with her to her room, followed by Mohammed, who was carrying some water, for there had been no time to tell the wife of Abd-el-Kader-el-Hadam that her mistress had returned. As soon as she got into the room, and saw the wardrobe with the looking-gla.s.s in the door, she ran up to it, like a child does when it sees its mother. She looked at herself for a few seconds, made a grimace, and then in a rather cross voice, she said to the looking-gla.s.s:
""Just you wait a moment; I have some silk dresses in the wardrobe.
I shall be beautiful in a few minutes."
"And I left her alone, to act the coquette to herself.
"Our life began its usual course again, as formerly, and I felt more and more under the influence of the strange, merely physical attractions of that girl, for whom, at the same time, I felt a kind of paternal contempt. For two months all went well, and then I felt that she was again becoming nervous, agitated, and rather low-spirited, and one day I said to her:--