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THE WANDERING JEW - V7
THE WANDERING JEW - V7 EUGENE SUE BOOK VII.
XL. The East Indian in Paris
XLI. Rising
XLII. Doubts
XLIII. The Letter
XLIV. Adrienne and Djalma
XLV. The Consultation
XLVI. Mother Bunch's Diary
XLVII. The Diary Continued
XLVIII. The Discovery
XLIX. The Trysting-Place of the Wolves
L. The Common Dwelling-House
LI. The Secret
LII. Revelations
CHAPTER XL.
THE EAST INDIAN IN PARIS.
Since three days Mdlle. de Cardoville had left Dr. Baleinier's. The
following scene took place in a little dwelling in the Rue Blanche to
which Djalma had been conducted in the name of his unknown protector.
Fancy to yourself a pretty circular apartment hung with Indian drapery
with purple figures on a gray ground just relieved by a few threads of
gold. The ceiling towards the centre is concealed by similar hangings
tied together by a thick silken cord; the two ends of this cord unequal
in length terminated instead of tassels in two tiny Indian lamps of
gold filigreed-work marvellously finished. By one of those ingenious
combinations so common in barbarous countries these lamps served also
to burn perfumes. Plates of blue crystal let in between the openings of
the arabesque and illumined by the interior light shone with so limpid
an azure that the golden lamps seemed starred with transparent
sapphires. Light clouds of whitish vapor rose incessantly from these
lamps and spread all around their balmy odor.
Daylight was only admitted to this room (it was about two o'clock in the
afternoon) through a little greenhouse on the other side of a door of
plate-glass made to slide into the thickness of the wall by means of a
groove. A Chinese shade was arranged so as to hide or replace this glass
at pleasure. Some dwarf palm tress plantains and other Indian
productions with thick leaves of a metallic green arranged in clusters
in this conservatory formed as it were the background to two large
variegated bushes of exotic flowers which were separated by a narrow
path paved with yellow and blue Japanese tiles running to the foot of
the glass. The daylight already much dimmed by the leaves through which
it passed took a hue of singular mildness as it mingled with the azure
lustre of the perfumed lamps and the crimson brightness of the fire in
the tall chimney of oriental porphyry. In the obscurity of this
apartment impregnated with sweet odors and the aromatic vapor of Persian
tobacco a man with brown hanging locks dressed in a long robe of dark
green fastened round the waist by a parti-colored sash was kneeling
upon a magnificent Turkey carpet filling the golden bowl of a hookah;
the long flexible tube of this pipe after rolling its folds upon the
carpet like a scarlet serpent with silver scales rested between the
slender fingers of Djalma who was reclining negligently on a divan. The
young prince was bareheaded; his jet-black hair parted on the middle of
his forehead streamed waving about his face and neck of antique beauty--
their warm transparent colors resembling amber or topaz. Leaning his
elbow on a cushion he supported his chin with the palm of his right
hand. The flowing sleeve of his robe falling back from his arm which
was round as that of a woman revealed mysterious signs formerly tattooed
there in India by a Thug's needle. The son of Radja-sing held in his
left hand the amber mouthpiece of his pipe. His robe of magnificent
cashmere with a border of a thousand hues reaching to his knee was
fastened about his slim and well-formed figure by the large folds of an
orange-colored shawl. This robe was half withdrawn from one of the
elegant legs of this Asiatic Antinous clad in a kind of very close
fitting gaiter of crimson velvet embroidered with silver and
terminating in a small white morocco slipper with a scarlet heel. At
once mild and manly the countenance of Djalma was expressive of that
melancholy and contemplative calmness habitual to the Indian and the
Arab who possess the happy privilege of uniting by a rare combination
the meditative indolence of the dreamer with the fiery energy of the man
of action--now delicate nervous impressionable as women--now
determined ferocious and sanguinary as bandits.
And this semi-feminine comparison applicable to the moral nature of the
Arab and the Indian so long as they are not carried away by the ardor of
battle and the excitement of carnage is almost equally applicable to
their physical constitution; for if like women of good blood they have
small extremities slender limbs fine and supple forms this delicate
and often charming exterior always covers muscles of steel full of an
elasticity and vigor truly masculine. Djalma's oblong eyes like black
diamonds set in bluish mother-of-pearl wandered mechanically from the
exotic flowers to the ceiling; from time to time he raised the amber
mouthpiece of the hookah to his lips; then after a slow aspiration half
opening his rosy lips strongly contrasted with the shining enamel of his
teeth he sent forth a little spiral line of smoke freshly scented by
the rose-water through which it had passed.
"Shall I put more tobacco in the hookah?" said the kneeling figure
turning towards Djalma and revealing the marked and sinister features of
Faringhea the Strangler.
The young prince remained dumb either that from an oriental contempt
for certain races he disdained to answer the half-caste or that
absorbed in his reverie he did not even hear him. The Strangler became
again silent; crouching cross-legged upon the carpet with his elbows
resting on his knees and his chin upon his hands he kept his eyes fixed
on Djalma and seemed to await the reply or the orders of him whose sire
had been surnamed the Father of the Generous. How had Faringhea the
sanguinary worshipper of Bowanee the Divinity of Murder been brought to
seek or to accept such humble functions? How came this man possessed of
no vulgar talents whose passionate eloquence and ferocious energy had
recruited many assassins for the service of the Good Work to resign
himself to so base a condition? Why too had this man who profiting
by the young prince's blindness with regard to himself might have so
easily sacrificed him as an offering to Bowanee--why had he spared the
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