Part 42 (1/2)
Mademoiselle Marie repeated the invitation to her aunt, who accepted it at once.
”_Tres volontiers, tres volontiers, messieurs_” she said, smiling and nodding. ”We have rambled out so far--so far! And I am not as young as I was forty years ago. _Ah, mon Dieu_! how my old bones ache! Give me thy hand, Marie, and thank the gentlemen for their politeness.”
So Mam'selle Marie helped her aunt to rise, and we steadied the boat close under the bank, at a point where the interlacing roots of a couple of sallows made a kind of natural step by means of which they could easily get down.
”Oh, dear! dear! it will not turn over, will it, my dear young man?
_Ciel_! I am slipping ... Ah, _Dieu, merci_!--Marie, _mon cher enfant_, pray be careful not to jump in, or you will upset us all!”
And _ma tante_, somewhat tremulous from the ordeal of embarking, settled down in her place, while Muller lifted Mam'selle Marie into the boat, as if she had been a child. I then took the oars, leaving him to steer; and so we pursued our way towards Courbevoie.
”Mam'selle has of course seen the fair?” said Muller, from behind the old lady's back.
”No, monsieur,”
”No! Is it possible?”
”There was so much crowd, monsieur, and such a noise ... we were quite too much afraid to venture in.”
”Would you be afraid, mam'selle, to venture with me?”
”I--I do not know, monsieur.”
”Ah, mam'selle, you might be very sure that I would take good care of you!”
”_Mais ... monsieur_”...
”These gentlemen, I see, have been angling,” said the old lady, addressing me very graciously. ”Have you caught many fish?”
”None at all, madame!” I replied, loudly.
”_Tiens_! so many as that?”
”_Pardon_, madame,” I shouted at the top of my voice. ”We have caught nothing--nothing at all.”
_Ma tante_ smiled blandly.
”Ah, yes,” she said; ”and you will have them cooked presently for dinner, _n'est-ce pas_? There is no fish so fresh, and so well-flavored, as the fish of our own catching.”
”Will madame and mam'selle do us the honor to taste our fish and share our modest dinner?” said Muller, leaning forward in his seat in the stern, and delivering his invitation close into the old lady's ear.
To which _ma tante_, with a readiness of hearing for which no one would have given her credit, replied:--
”But--but monsieur is very polite--if we should not be inconveniencing these gentlemen”....
”We shall be charmed, madame--we shall be honored!”
”_Eh bien!_ with pleasure, then--Marie, my child, thank the gentlemen for their amiable invitation.”
I was thunderstruck. I looked at Muller to see if he had suddenly gone out of his senses. Mam'selle Marie, however, was infinitely amused.