True as this remark of an experienced person may be, yet having my own ideas as to these vain appendages which I could not prevent from sprouting; and being, moreover, sufficiently provided with proofs which I had duly weighed, my first idea was to dart head first athwart this intrigue in which my dishonour was a certainty. Leaving Mohammed upon the divan where he had stranded, I hastened by way of the stairs to the guilty creature's room. I softly opened the closed door, stepped gently over the carpet, and approached her from behind in time to catch her just as she had one hand on her heart and the other on her lips. She gave a little shriek, while the drum-major, on seeing me appear so suddenly, made a gesture of despair. Then he drew back with such haste that his plume caught against the wall above the window, with the result that his bearskin was knocked off, and turning a sommersault fell into the courtyard. Zouhra thereupon gave another shriek. All this had occurred with the rapidity of a flash of lightning. My rival, closing his window, had disappeared like a jack-in-the-box. We were alone. "Ah! ha!" I then said to the unworthy creature, "so this is your conduct----" She answered nothing; she still hoped, no doubt, that she would be able to deny the facts, with the brazen assurance of the woman who, although surprised in the act, puts on a grand air, and waxes wrathful as at an insult. "Who was that man up there," I resumed, "with whom you were corresponding?" "A man!" she finally answered with her strong Turkish accent which I will spare you. "I don't know what you mean--I don't know any men--I have never seen any!" "But he was at that window--there." "Well, what does that prove?" she retorted. "Does that concern me? Can I prevent people from coming to their windows?" "No, but when they are there you might prevent yourself from making signs to them; and especially from returning the kisses they send to you." "Signs, I? I made signs!" she exclaimed. "Ah! that is really too bad! Who do you take me for then?" "Why, I surprised you, and I stayed your hand when you had your fingers raised to your lips." "Well, can't I put my fingers to my lips now? What, am I not to have the right to make a gesture, without accounting for it, without being insulted? Did any one ever see a woman treated in such an odious fashion? Well, tie me up then!" You are acquainted with women's tactics, my dear Louis: they are always the same in such cases. I put a stop to it all after letting her deny the facts. "Come, come," I said to her. "This is not the time for you to play the part of a persecuted victim. For the last half hour I have been watching you from behind those curtains. I saw everything--with my opera-glass," I added, showing her the glass in proof of my assertion. Struck by this victorious demonstration she stood there in consternation. For a moment I enjoyed the effect I had produced and then continued: