Yes, highness, I am an old man, and
can hardly say that any wishes or aspirations now find a place in my
bosom."
"Are you alone in the world?" asked Cousrouf. "Have you no family?"
A strange fire gleamed for an instant in Mohammed's eyes, and he
compressed his lips firmly. How could he who had inflicted such
intolerable anguish upon him, how could he question him as to his
heart's history? Woe to him for so doing! for this, too, shall
retribution be visited upon him!
"Yes, highness, I have a family. I have a wife and three sons at
home in Cavalla."
"One wife only!" said the pacha. "Are you contented with one wife?"
"One is often too many," replied Mohammed. "But this does not apply
to my wife. She is the niece of the tschorbadji, and devoted to me.
I have no cause to complain of her."
"Is that all?" asked the pacha, with an air of indifference. "You
have nothing further to say of her? Then you do not love her, I
suppose?"
"Highness, I believe love was torn from my heart in my youth."
"Everyone says that until he loves," replied Cousrouf, composedly
blowing clouds of smoke from his mouth. "Yet, in my opinion, one is
never too old to love; the heart never grows old. Let me know it if
you feel that another love can blossom in your heart, and that you
wish, in addition to the wife you have long possessed--and I know
that possession gives satiety--another, a young and beautiful wife.
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