Page:Kéraban the Inflexible Part 1 (Jules Verne).djvu/82

84 he does not answer my letter by to-morrow, I will go to Constantinople—!"

"No, dear Ahmet," said Amasia, seizing his hand, as if to detain him, "I should suffer so much by your absence that the few days gained would not please me at all; they would not recompense me for the separation. No, stay where you are: who knows? Perhaps something may alter your uncle's determination."

"Alter Uncle Kéraban's determination! You might as well hope to change the course of the stars, to make the moon rise instead of the sun, to change the laws of the universe—as to alter Kéraban's decision," said Ahmet.

"Ah, if I were his niece!" said Nedjeb.

"What would you do then?" asked Ahmet.

"I would seize his caftan, so that—"

"You would only succeed in tearing it."

"Well, then, I would pull his beard for him, hard!"

"His beard might even be pulled off altogether," replied Ahmet.

"And yet," said Amasia, "Seigneur Kéraban is the best of men."

"No doubt, no doubt," replied Ahmet; "but so headstrong, so obstinate, that if an encounter were to take place between him and a mule, I should decline to bet on the latter."