Page:Kéraban the Inflexible Part 1 (Jules Verne).djvu/81

Rh The young man advanced and seized the hands of his affianced bride, obliging her to reseat herself, while Nedjeb said,—

"Well, Seigneur Ahmet, is there any news from Constantinople?"

"No," replied Ahmet, "not even a business letter from my uncle Kéraban."

"Oh, the wretch!" exclaimed Nedjeb.

"I cannot myself understand," said the young man, "why the courier has not brought any letter from him. This is the day he never fails to let us have some information, and to arrange matters with the banker; yet your father has not received any letters from him either."

"For a punctilious man of business, like your uncle, this certainly is a circumstance to wonder at, dear Ahmet. Perhaps a telegram—"

"He send a telegram! My dear Amasia, you know quite well he would no more telegraph than he would travel by railway. Utilize modern inventions, even for business! He would rather receive bad news by letter than good news by the telegraph, I believe. Ah, Uncle Kéraban—"

"You have written to him, of course, dear Ahmet?" asked the girl, whose gaze was tenderly fixed upon her fiancé.

"I have written to him a dozen times, to beg him to fix an earlier date for our marriage. I have told him over and over again that he was acting a barbarous part—"

"Good!" exclaimed Nedjeb.

"That he had no heart; though the best of men—"

"Oh!" said Nedjeb, shaking her head.

"Yet he had no pity," continued Ahmet, "while acting the part of father to his nephew. But he replied that so long as he came within six weeks we had no reason to complain!"

"Well, we must only wait his good pleasure, Ahmet."

"Wait, wait!" exclaimed the young man. "He is robbing us of so many days of happiness!"

"Men who have done no worse are often arrested," remarked Nedjeb, tapping her foot impatiently.

"What shall I do? await Uncle Kéraban? I declare, if