On the third floor of the colonel's house I could see a splendid drum-major in full uniform, with large epaulets, his chest bedizened with broad gold braid and his hand resting upon his heart. As the room was not high enough to accommodate the lofty plume towering above his bearskin, my rival was leaning half out of the window, and his tricolour insignium seemed to pierce the sky. I remained dazzled at the sight of him: he glistened like the sun! With Zouhra it had been love at first sight. The pantomimic business gradually began on both sides; on the girl's part it was naive and still restrained; on the drum-major's, ardent and passionate, though now and then he struck a contemplative attitude. He showed her a letter and she showed him another one, which she held in readiness. The sight made a flush rise to Mohammed's brow. In presence of such avowals doubt was no longer possible. The drum-major soon became emboldened and raised the tips of his fingers to his lips. His kisses journeyed through space; and then with his hands clasped he begged of Zouhra to return them. I must confess that the wretched girl defended herself for a few minutes with bashful reserve. But she was so pressed and implored that at last I saw her weaken, and anxious and hesitating, she yielded. I was betrayed! Mohammed sank down, uttering a plaintive moan. For my own part I thought of my uncle's misfortune. Was it fate? However, my uncle is not the only man who comes from Marseilles; I also come from that city, and although I am merely his nephew, I have at times enough of his hot disposition to feel as he felt after similar strokes of fate. Having been drawn into his irregular orbit, passing through the same phases as he passed through, I must expect that nothing will ever happen to me in the same way as it would happen to others, himself excepted. Thus the similarity of our adventures--the drum-major in my case taking the place of my uncle's Jean Bonaffe,--ought not to have surprised me; it should have been foreseen like a philosophical contingency previously inscribed in the book of destiny. And, indeed, to tell the truth, I should have considered the slightest departure from the precise law of fate illogical. However, I was either in a bad disposition of mind or I had been too suddenly and speedily awakened from the presumptuous quietude into which I had sunk, for I will admit to you that on thinking over my case, I experienced at the moment a singular feeling of astonishment. Horns are like teeth, a witty woman once said: they hurt while they are coming, but afterwards one manages to put up with them!