Part 31 (1/2)

I calculated. Joanna was a grown-up woman about to be married when my age was six. I suddenly felt very young indeed.

The waiters set the lunch. Joanna, most perfect of hostesses, presided gaily, cracked little jokes for my entertainment and inspired me with the power of quite elegant conversation. Paragot preserved his correct demeanour and, to my puzzledom, spoke very little. I wondered whether the repressive influence lay in the spats or the purple cravat with the yellow spots. As a painter I didn't like the cravat. He drank a great deal of water with his wine. I noticed him once pause in the act of conveying to his mouth a bit of bread held in his fingers with which he had mopped up the sauce in his plate, and furtively conceal it between his cutlet bones--a manoeuvre which, at the time, I could not understand. In the _Quartier Latin_ we cleaned our plates to a bright polish with bits of bread. How else could you consume the sauce?

At the end of the meal Joanna gave us permission to smoke.

”I won't smoke, thank you,” said Paragot politely.

”Rubbis.h.!.+” laughed Joanna, whereupon Paragot produced a cigarette case from the breast pocket of his frock coat. Paragot and a cigarette-case!

Once more it was _abracadabrant_! He also refused cognac with his coffee.

After a time, still feeling that I was very young, and that my seniors might have further confidential things to say to each other, I rose to take my leave. Paragot rose too.

”I would ask you to stay, Gaston, if I hadn't my wretched lawyer to see this afternoon. But you'll come in for an hour after dinner, won't you?

No one knows I'm in Paris. Besides, at this time of year there is no one in Paris to know.”

”Willingly,” said Paragot, ”but _les convenances_----”

Joanna's pretty lips parted in astonishment.

”You--preaching the proprieties?--My dear Gaston!”

I turned to the window and looked at the Tuileries Gardens which baked in the afternoon sun. The two spoke a little in low voices, but I could not help overhearing.

”Is it true, Gaston, that you have wanted me all these years?”

”I want you as much now as I did then.”

”I, too,” whispered Joanna.

CHAPTER XVI

AS we emerged from the Hotel Meurice I turned instinctively to the left.

Paragot drew me to the right.

”Henceforward,” said he, ”I resume the Paris which is my birthright. We will forget for a moment that there are such places as the Boulevard Saint-Michel and the Rue des Saladiers.”

We walked along the Rue de Rivoli and taking the Rue Royale pa.s.sed the Madeleine and arrived at the Cafe de la Paix. It was a broiling afternoon. The cool terrace of the cafe invited the hot wayfarer to repose.

”Master,” said I, ”isn't it almost time for your absinthe?”

He raised his lemon kids as if he would ban the place.

”My little Asticot, I have abjured absinthe and forsworn cafes. I have broken my new porcelain pipe and have cut my finger-nails. As I enter on the path of happiness, I scatter the dregs and shreds and clippings of the past behind me. I divest myself of all the c.r.a.pulous years.”

If he had divested himself of the superfluous trappings of respectability beneath which he was perspiring freely, I thought he would have been happier. The sight of the umbrella alone made one feel moist, to say nothing of the spats.

”We might have some grenadine syrup,” I suggested ironically.