Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/278

Dolores thought her neighbor was quizzing her, and was beginning to get angry, when Mr. Birne added:

“As I am very rich, I will buy the animal; put your price on it.”

Dolores answered that she valued the bird, and liked it, and would not wish to see it pass into the hands of another.

“Oh! it’s not in my hands I want to put it,” replied the Englishman, “but under my feet—so—;” and he pointed to the heels of his boots.

Dolores shuddered with indignation, and would probably have broken out, when she perceived on the Englishman’s finger a ring, the diamond of which represented an income of twenty-five hundred francs. This discovery was like a showerbath to her rage. She reflected that it might be imprudent to quarrel with a man who carried fifty thousand francs on his little finger.

“Well, sir,” she said, “as poor Coco annoys you, I will put him in a back room, where you cannot hear him.”

The Englishman made a gesture of satisfaction.

“However,” added he, pointing once more to his boots, “I should have preferred—”

“Don’t be afraid. Where I mean to put him it will be impossible for him to trouble milord.”

“Oh! I am not a lord; only an esquire.”

With that Mr. Birne was retiring, after a very low bow, when Dolores, who never neglected her interests, took up a small packet from a work-table, and said:

“To-night, sir, is my benefit at the theatre; I am to play in three pieces. Will you allow me to offer you some box-tickets? 'The price has been but very slightly raised; and she put a dozen boxes into the Briton’s hand.

“After showing myself so prompt to oblige him,” thought she, “he cannot refuse, if he is a gentleman; and if he sees me play in my pink costume, who knows? He is very