Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/85

“Giving it!” replied the other: “keeping it, I should say. Just imagine!” he added, pointing to the vinegar on the plate from which Lucia had been eating her artichoke; “pickling that falsetto of hers!”

“It is a strong acid, to be sure,” added the personage who had first spoken. “They make some at Orleans which has deservedly a great reputation.”

Schaunard carefully examined this individual, who was thus fishing for a conversation with him. The fixed stare of his large blue eyes, which always seemed looking for something, gave his features that character of happy tranquillity which is common among theological students. His face had a uniform tint of old ivory, except his cheeks, which had a coat, as it were, of brickdust. His mouth seemed to have been sketched by a student in the rudiments of drawing, whose elbow had been jogged while he was tracing it. His lips, which pouted almost like a negro’s, disclosed teeth not unlike a stag-hound’s; and his double-chin reposed itself upon a white cravat, one of whose points threatened the stars, while the other was ready to pierce the ground. A torrent of light hair escaped from under the enormous brim of his well-worn felt-hat. He wore a hazel-colored overcoat with a large cape, worn thread-bare and rough as a grater; from its yawning pockets peeped bundles of manuscripts and pamphlets. The enjoyment of his sour-crout, which he devoured with numerous and audible marks of approbation, rendered him heedless of the scrutiny to which he was subjected, but did not prevent him from continuing to read an old book open before him, in which he made marginal notes from time to time with a pencil that he carried behind his ear.

“Hello!” cried Schaunard suddenly, making his glass ring with his knife, “my stew!”

“Sir,” said the girl, running up plate in hand, “there is