“Well, she said to us:
“ ‘We are going to pick up at the Opera ball the very best, most distinguished, and richest specimen of manhood in Paris. I know them all.’
“At first we couldn’t believe it would come off, because that sort of man isn’t really open to dress makers; to Irma, yes, but not to us. Oh, she had style, had Irma. You know, we always said in the workroom that if the Emperor had known her, he would certainly have married her.
“For this business, she made us put on our smartest clothes, and she said:
“ ‘Now you won’t come to the ball, you are each of you going to wait in a cab in one of the streets near by. A gentleman will come and get into your carriage. As soon as he gets in, you will embrace him as enticingly as you know how, and then you will scream to make him understand you’ve made a mistake and are expecting someone else. The pigeon will be thoroughly excited to think he’s taking another man’s place and he’ll want to insist on staying; you’ll resist him, you’ll struggle like the devil to get out … and then … you will go and have supper with him. … Then of course he’ll have to give you something for your trouble.’
“You still don’t understand? Well, this is what she did, the sly little devil.
“She made all four of us get into four carriages, real private carriages, very swagger carriages, and then she sent us into the streets near the Opera. Then she went to the ball by herself. As she knew all the most famous men in Paris by name, because Madame dressed their wives, she picked one of them out and played him. She said all kinds of things to him; my word, she was witty too. When she saw that he was well worked up, she dropped her mask and there he was caught in a noose. Then he wanted to take her off with him at once, and she gave him an appointment in half an hour’s time in a carriage standing opposite Number 20 in the Rue Taitbout. In the carriage was me! I was all wrapped up and my face veiled. Suddenly a gentleman put his head in at the window and said:
“ ‘Is it you?’
“I answered softly:
“ ‘Yes, it’s me, come in quickly.’
“He comes in, and I take him in my arms and hug him, hug him until he couldn’t breathe; then I go on:
“ ‘Oh, how happy I am, how happy I am!’
“And then all at once I cry:
“ ‘But it’s not you! Oh, heavens! Heavens!’
“And I begin to weep.
“Imagine how embarrassed the man is! At first he tries to console me; he apologises, and protests that he has made a mistake himself.
“I went on weeping, but less bitterly, and then sighed deeply. Then he talked tenderly to me. He was everything a gentleman should be, and now he was delighted to see my tears gradually stopping.
“In short, one thing led to another, and he suggested my going to supper with him. I refused; I tried to jump out of the carriage; he caught me round the waist, and then held me, as I had held him when he came in.
“And then … and then … we had … we had supper … you understand … and he gave me … guess, just guess … he gave me five hundred francs. … Believe me, some men are free with their money!
“Well, it came off all right with every one of us. Louise did least well with two hundred francs. But, you know, Louise really was too thin.”
The tobacco-shop woman chattered on, pouring out in one wild rush all the memories stored so long in her heart, the cautiously closed heart of a Government licensee. All the days of poverty and adventure stirred in her memory. She thought with regret of the gay bohemian life of the Paris streets, a life of privation and sold kisses, of laughter and misery, of trickery and love that was not always feigned.
I said to her:
“But how did you get your licence to sell tobacco?”
She smiled:
“Oh, that’s quite a story. I must tell you that in my boardinghouse I had right next door to me a law student; but, don’t you know, one of those students who never study. This one lived in cafés from morning to night, and he adored billiards, as I have never known anyone adore it.
“When I was alone we sometimes spent the evening together. It was by him that I had Roger.”
“Who’s Roger?”
“My son.”
“Oh.”
“He allowed me a little money to bring up the brat, but I knew very well that the fellow wouldn’t be any real good to me; I was the surer of it because I’d never seen a man so slack, except him, never. At the end of ten years he hadn’t got through his first exam. When his people saw that he would never come to anything, they sent for him to come back home somewhere in the provinces; but we kept up a correspondence about the child. And then would you believe it? at the last election, two years ago, I heard that he had been made a deputy for his district. And then he spoke in the Chamber. It’s quite true what they say, that in the kingdom of the blind …
