talk freely, at table,
she thought. But throughout the morning she was unable to meet the
poultry dealer, and so in the afternoon she went back again to the
markets.

Marjolin was in the stall alone. He used to drowse there for hours,
recouping himself from the fatigue of his long rambles. He generally sat
upon one chair with his legs resting upon another, and his head leaning
against a little dresser. In the wintertime he took a keen delight in
lolling there and contemplating the display of game; the bucks hanging
head downwards, with their fore-legs broken and twisted round their
necks; the larks festooning the stall like garlands; the big ruddy
hares, the mottled partridges, the water-fowl of a bronze-grey hue, the
Russian black cocks and hazel hens, which arrived in a packing of oat
straw and charcoal;[*] and the pheasants, the magnificent pheasants,
with their scarlet hoods, their stomachers of green satin, their mantles
of embossed gold, and their flaming tails, that trailed like trains of
court robes. All this show of plumage reminded Marjolin of his rambles
in the cellars with Cadine amongst the hampers of feathers.

[*] The baskets in which these are sent to Paris are
identical with those which in many provinces of Russia serve
the _moujiks_ as cradles for their infants.--Translator.

That afternoon the beautiful Lisa found Marjolin in the midst of the
poultry. It was warm, and whiffs of hot air passed along the narrow
alleys of the pavilion. She was obliged to stoop before she could see
him stretched out inside the stall, below the bare flesh of the birds.
From the hooked bar up above hung fat geese, the hooks sticking in the
bleeding wounds of their long stiffened necks, while their huge bodies
bulged out, glowing ruddily beneath their fine down, and, with their
snowy tails and wings, suggesting nudity encompassed by fine linen.
And also hanging from the bar, with ears thrown back and feet parted
as though they were bent on some vigorous leap, were grey rabbits whose
turned-up tails gleamed whitely, whilst their heads, with sharp teeth
and dim eyes, laughed with the grin of death. On the counter of the
stall plucked fowls showed their strained fleshy breasts; pigeons,
crowded on osier trays, displayed the soft bare skin of innocents;
ducks, with skin of rougher texture, exhibited their webbed feet; and
three magnificent turkeys, speckled with blue dots, like freshly-shaven
chins, slumbered o