ThisEdition is Strictly Limited to
OneThousand Numbered Copies
forMature Collectors
ofLiterary CuriosaNo. 899.
French and Oriental
Love in a Harem
by
MARIO UCHARD
with Decorations by
Paul Avril
Privately Issued
by FALSTAFF PRESS
NEW YORK
CHAPTERI.
Châteaude Férouzat,..., 18...
No indeed, my dear Louis, Iam neither dead nor ruined, norhave Iturned pirate, trappist, or rural guard, as you might imagine in orderto explain my silence these four months since I last appeared at yourillustrious studio. No, you witty giber, my fabulous heritage has nottaken wings! I am dwelling neither in China on the Blue River, nor inRed Oceania, nor in White Lapland. My yacht, built of teak, still liesin harbour, and is not swaying me over the vasty deep. It is no goodyour spinning out laborious and far-fetched hyperboles on the subjectofmy uncle's will: your ironical shafts all miss the mark. My uncle'swillsurpasses the most astonishing feat of its kind ever accomplished bynotary's pen; and your poor imagination could not invent, or comeanywhere near inventing, such remarkable adventures as those into whichthis registered document has led me.
First of all, in order thatyour feeble intellect may beenabled to riseto the level of the subject, I must give you some description of "theCorsair," as you called him after you met him in Paris last winter; forit is only by comprehending the peculiarities of his life and characterthat you can ever hope to understand my adventures.
Unfortunately, at this verypoint, a considerable difficultyarises, formy uncle still remains and always will remain a sort of legendarypersonage. Born at Marseilles, he was left an orphan at about the ageoffourteen, alone in the world with one little sister still in thecradle,whom he brought up, and who subsequently became my mother: hence histender regard for me. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the fact thatwetwo constituted the whole family, I only saw him during the intervalsonshore of his sea-faring life. Endowed with truly remarkable qualitiesand with an energy that recognized no obstacles, he was the best fellowin the world, as you must have observed for yourself; but certainly hewas also, from what I know of him, a most original character. I don'tbelieve that in the course of his eventful career, he ever did a singleact like other men, unless, may be, in the getting ofchildren—yet eventhese were only his "god-children." He has left fourteen in theDepartment of Le Gard, scattered over the different estates on which helived by turns after he had quitted the East; and we may well believehewould not have stopped short at that number, but that four months ago,as he was returning from the South Pole, he happened to die of asunstroke, at the age of sixty-three. This last touch completes thepicture of his life. As to his history, all that is known of it i