Rue des Bourdonnais, where one can play at marbles without fear of
being run over. The girl perked her head affectedly as she passed the
wholesale glove and hosiery stores, at each door of which bareheaded
assistants, with their pens stuck in their ears, stood watching her with
a weary gaze. And she and her lover had yet a stronger preference for
such bits of olden Paris as still existed: the Rue de la Poterie and the
Rue de la Lingerie, with their butter and egg and cheese dealers; the
Rue de la Ferronerie and the Rue de l'Aiguillerie (the beautiful streets
of far-away times), with their dark narrow shops; and especially the Rue
Courtalon, a dank, dirty by-way running from the Place Sainte Opportune
to the Rue Saint Denis, and intersected by foul-smelling alleys where
they had romped in their younger days. In the Rue Saint Denis they
entered into the land of dainties; and they smiled upon the dried
apples, the "Spanishwood," the prunes, and the sugar-candy in the
windows of the grocers and druggists. Their ramblings always set them
dreaming of a feast of good things, and inspired them with a desire to
glut themselves on the contents of the windows. To them the district
seemed like some huge table, always laid with an everlasting dessert
into which they longed to plunge their fingers.

They devoted but a moment to visiting the other blocks of tumble-down
old houses, the Rue Pirouette, the Rue de Mondetour, the Rue de la
Petite Truanderie, and the Rue de la Grande Truanderie, for they took
little interest in the shops of the dealers in edible snails, cooked
vegetables, tripe, and drink. In the Rue de la Grand Truanderie,
however, there was a soap factory, an oasis of sweetness in the midst of
all the foul odours, and Marjolin was fond of standing outside it till
some one happened to enter or come out, so that the perfume which swept
through the doorway might blow full in his face. Then with all speed
they returned to the Rue Pierre Lescot and the Rue Rambuteau. Cadine was
extremely fond of salted provisions; she stood in admiration before the
bundles of red-herrings, the barrels of anchovies and capers, and the
little casks of gherkins and olives, standing on end with wooden spoons
inside them. The smell of the vinegar titillated her throat; the pungent
odour of the rolled cod, smoked salmon, bacon and ham, and the sharp
acidity of the baskets of lemons, made her mouth water longingly. She
was also fond of feasting her ey