g under the trees
with her duenna when we--M. Rochez and I--came face to face with them.
My friend raised his hat, and I did likewise. Mademoiselle Leah
blushed and the ogre frowned. Sir, she was an ogre!--bony and angular
and hook-nosed, with thin lips that closed with a snap, and cold grey
eyes that sent a shiver down your spine! Rochez introduced me to her,
and I made myself exceedingly agreeable to her, while my friend
succeeded in exchanging two or three whispered words with his
inamorata.

But we did not get very far that day. Mlle. Goldberg senior soon
marched her lovely charge away.

Ah, Sir, she was lovely indeed! And in my heart I not only envied
Rochez his good fortune but I also felt how entirely unworthy he was
of it. Nor did the beautiful Leah give me the impression of being
quite so deeply struck with his charms as he would have had me
believe. Indeed, it struck me during those few minutes that I stood
dutifully talking to her duenna that the fair young Jewess cast more
than one approving glance in my direction.

Be that as it may, the progress of our respective courtships, now that
the ice was broken, took on a more decided turn. At first it only
amounted to meetings on the boulevards and a cursory greeting, but
soon Mlle. Goldberg senior, delighted with my conversation, would
deliberately turn to walk with me under the trees the while Fernand
Rochez followed by the side of his adored. A week later the ladies
accepted my friend's offer to sit under the awning of the Cafe
Bourbon and to sip sirops, whilst we indulged in tankards of
foaming "blondes."

Within a fortnight, Sir--I may say it without boasting--I had Mlle.
Goldberg senior in the hollow of my hand. On the boulevards, as soon
as she caught sight of me, her dour face would be wreathed in smiles,
a row of large yellow teeth would appear between her thin lips, and
her cold, grey eyes would soften with a glance of welcome which more
than ever sent a cold shudder down my spine. While we four were
together, either promenading or sitting at open-air cafes in the cool
of the evening, the old duenna had eyes and ears only for me, and if
my friend Rochez did not get on with his own courtship as fast as he
would have wished the fault rested entirely with him.

For he did _not_ get on with his courtship, and that was a fact. The
fair Leah was very sweet, very coy, greatly amused, I fancy, at her
aunt's obvious infatuation for me, and not a little fla