I am leaving everything in your
charge. Will you keep your heart for me too?"
"Neither my heart nor anything else," she said; "but when you come
back again, Naqui will still be Naqui for you."
"Well, this is frankness. So you would not follow me?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Eh! why, how can I leave the lover who writes me such sweet little
notes?" she asked, pointing to the blackened scrap of paper with a
mocking smile.
"Is there any truth in it?" asked Castanier. "Have you really a
lover?"
"Really!" cried Aquilina; "and have you never given it a serious
thought, dear? To begin with, you are fifty years old. Then you have
just the sort of face to put on a fruit stall; if the woman tried to
see you for a pumpkin, no one would contradict her. You puff and blow
like a seal when you come upstairs; your paunch rises and falls like a
diamond on a woman's forehead! It is pretty plain that you served in
the dragoons; you are a very ugly-looking old man. Fiddle-de-dee. If
you have any mind to keep my respect, I recommend you not to add
imbecility to these qualities by imagining that such a girl as I am
will be content with your asthmatic love, and not look for youth and
good looks and pleasure by way of a variety----"
"Aquilina! you are laughing, of course?"
"Oh, very well; and are you not laughing too? Do you take me for a
fool, telling me that you are going away? 'I am going to start
to-night!'" she said, mimicking his tones.
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