young officer, while you conversed with the young priest."

"So, like the sultans of our harems, civilized men require of women the
innocence they have themselves lost."

"They require it the more, the less they have of it, my lord."

"To require without any return, is to act as a master to his slave; by
what right?"

"By the right of the strongest--as it is among us, my lord."

"And what do the women do?"

"They prevent the men from being too ridiculous, when they marry, in the
eyes of the world."

"But they kill a woman that is false?" said Djalma, raising himself
abruptly, and fixing upon Faringhea a savage look, that sparkled with
lurid fire.

"They kill her, my lord, as with us--when they find her out."

"Despots like ourselves! Why then do these civilized men not shut up
their women, to force them to a fidelity which they do not practise?"

"Because their civilization is barbarous, and their barbarism civilized,
my lord."

"All this is sad enough, if true," observed Djalma, with a pensive air,