age: what have you been about all this time? But it must have been very disagreeable for you at Padang, where English is so much spoken. Did you know Miss Matta-api (Fire-eye)?”
“No, I do not know the name.”
“It was not her name; we gave her this nickname because her eyes were so brilliant. I think she must be married by this time; it was long ago. I never saw such eyes. . . . except at Arles. . . . you must go there. That is the prettiest place I ever visited in my travels. It seems to me that there is nothing that so well represents beauty in the abstract, as—a beautiful woman—a visible image of true immaterial purityBelieve me, go to Arles and Nîmes. . . .”
Duclari, Verbrugge, and Tine also, I must confess, could not suppress a loud laugh at the thought of stepping over so unexpectedly from the west of Java to Arles or Nîmes. Havelaar, who, perhaps, had stood on the tower[1] built by
- ↑ As Arles is renowned for its beautiful remains of Roman origin, the tower in question is probably also of Roman construction. True, the Saracens conquered this city in 730, yet soon afterwards they were beaten by Charles Martel, who took the city again. We are strengthened in our supposition by the communication of M. De Caumont, the celebrated French archeologist, that the Roman monuments are known by the French peasants of the different départements under the name of Sarrazin. Even M. Leroy de la Brière says that the workmen call the Roman coins piéces de Mahomet.—See Annales de la Société Française d'archéologie pour la description et la conservation des monuments, 1865 (Congrès Archéologique de France, XXXI. session à Fontenoy 1864) pag. 6 F.—Translator.
