Part 12 (2/2)

”Who is this Ali Baba?” thought Mademoiselle Sidonia on her part. And she meditated on a pretext for engaging in conversation with Rodolphe, who was himself trying to do the very same.

”Bless me!” cried the lady, as if talking to herself, ”what a bore! I've no matches!”

”Allow me to offer you some, mademoiselle,” said Rodolphe, letting fall on the balcony two or three lucifers rolled up in paper.

”A thousand thanks,” replied Sidonia, lighting her cigarette.

”Pray, mademoiselle,” continued Rodolphe, ”in exchange for the trifling service which my good angel has permitted me to render you, may I ask you to do me a favor?”

”Asking already,” thought the actress, as she regarded Rodolphe with more attention. ”They say these Turks are fickle, but very agreeable.

Speak sir,” she continued, raising her head towards the young man, ”what do you wish?”

”The charity of a little tobacco, mademoiselle, only one pipe. I have not smoked for two whole days.”

”Most willingly, but how? Will you take the trouble to come downstairs?”

”Alas! I can't! I am shut up here, but am still free to employ a very simple means.” He fastened his pipe to a string, and let it glide down to her balcony, where Sidonia filled it profusely herself. Rodolphe then proceeded, with much ease and deliberation, to remount his pipe, which arrived without accident. ”Ah, mademoiselle!” he exclaimed, ”how much better this pipe would have seemed, if I could have lighted it at your eyes!”

It was at least the hundredth edition of this amiable pleasantry, but Sidonia found it superb for all that, and thought herself bound to reply, ”You flatter me.”

”I a.s.sure you, mademoiselle, in right-down earnest, I think you handsomer than all the Three Graces together.”

”Decidedly, Ali Baba is very polite,” thought Sidonia. ”Are you really a Turk?” she asked Rodolphe.

”Not by profession,” he replied, ”but by necessity. I am a dramatic author.”

”I am an artist,” she replied, then added, ”My dear sir and neighbor, will you do me the honor to dine and spend the evening with me?”

”Alas!” answered Rodolphe, ”though your invitation is like opening heaven to me, it is impossible to accept it. As I had the honor to tell you, I am shut up here by my uncle, Monsieur Monetti, stove-maker and chimney doctor, whose secretary I am now.”

”You shall dine with me for all that,” replied Sidonia. ”Listen, I shall re-enter my room, and tap on the ceiling. Look where I strike and you will find the traces of a trap which used to be there, and has since been fastened up. Find the means of removing the piece of wood which closes the hole, and then, although we are each in our own room, we shall be as good as together.”

Rodolphe went to work at once. In five minutes a communication was established between the two rooms.

”It is a very little hole,” said he, ”but there will always be room enough to pa.s.s you my heart.”

”Now,” said Sidonia, ”we will go to dinner. Set your table, and I will pa.s.s you the dishes.”

Rodolphe let down his turban by a string, and brought it back laden with eatables, then the poet and the actress proceeded to dine--on their respective floors. Rodolphe devoured the pie with his teeth, and Sidonia with his eyes.

”Thanks to you, mademoiselle,” he said, when their repast was finished, ”my stomach is satisfied. Can you not also satisfy the void of my heart, which has been so long empty?”

”Poor fellow!” said Sidonia, and climbing on a piece of furniture, she lifted up her hand to Rodolphe's lips, who gloved it with kisses.

”What a pity,” he exclaimed, ”you can't do as St. Denis, who had the privilege of carrying his head in his hands!”

To the dinner succeeded a sentimental literary conversation. Rodolphe spoke of ”The Avenger,” and Sidonia asked him to read it. Leaning over the hole, he began declaiming his drama to the actress, who, to hear better, had put her arm chair on the top of a chest of drawers. She p.r.o.nounced ”The Avenger” a masterpiece, and having some influence at the theater, promised Rodolphe to get his piece received.

But at the most interesting moment a step was heard in the entry, about as light as that of the Commander's ghost in ”Don Juan.” It was Uncle Monetti. Rodolphe had only just time to shut the trap.

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