Volume I Part 12 (1/2)
”Lovely masker, my hand went astray involuntarily.”
”Look out that it don't go astray again in that direction.”
”I only did it to find out----”
”Whether I wore steel skirts, eh?”
”Exactly.”
”Well, I don't need such things; I'm plump enough not to wear subst.i.tutes.--What in the world's the matter with your boots?”
”Nothing. They're too big; they keep falling.”
”Why didn't you wear hoop-skirts on your legs? they wouldn't be out of the way.”
”Are you free, pretty domino, or under the control of a husband?”
”What makes you ask me that? Do you want to marry me?”
”Why, when one desires to form a loving intimacy, isn't it natural to find out, first of all, the situation of the person one desires?”
”Aha! so you desire me, my tall hidalgo! in that case, you are going to treat me and my friend to a stick of candy; if you don't, I won't allow you to desire me.”
”Oh, yes! candy!” cried the shepherdess. ”Besides, I promised to take some home to my little brother. And then, all the women have a stick in their hands. It takes the place of a fan; it looks very nice.”
Chamoureau considered that the ladies who go to the Opera ball are decidedly gluttonous, but it was impossible to draw back.
They were near the other buffet at that moment; the pink domino and the shepherdess selected a stick of candy each, and they did not take the smallest.
”How much?” asked the Spaniard.
”Ten francs.”
”What! ten francs for candy?”
”A hundred sous each for the sticks the ladies took; two make ten francs.”
”Come, my n.o.ble friend, pay up!” laughed the pink domino. ”You certainly don't mean to haggle, do you? You'll make one believe you're not a n.o.ble Castilian at all, and that you learned all you know of Spain in Vaugirard!”
”No, no, I am not haggling!” said Chamoureau, making a horrible grimace under his false nose. ”But I'm afraid I haven't the change.”
”We'll change a note for you, monsieur.”
While our widower took his purse from under his belt and inspected the contents, the shepherdess said to the pink domino in an undertone:
”My dear, there's our men over yonder, by the door, where we agreed.
They're looking for us, no doubt.”
”In that case, let's be off, while that tall donkey has his false nose in his purse.”
Chamoureau changed a forty-franc piece to pay for his candy, and, when he had received his change, turned to where the two women had stood, flattering himself that his gallantry ent.i.tled him to the most delicious reward. But instead of the pink domino, his false nose almost came in contact with the eye of a mustachioed individual, who said to him very sharply: