rs.

But Paul neither saw, looked at, nor smelled anything, for our fellow
traveler engrossed all his attention.

When we got to Cannes, as he wished to speak to me he signed to me to
get out again, and as soon as I had done so he took me by the arm.

"Do you know, she is really charming. Just look at her eyes; and I never
saw anything like her hair."

"Don't excite yourself," I replied, "or else tackle her, if you have any
intentions that way. She does not look impregnable, I fancy, although
she appears to be a little bit grumpy."

"Why don't you speak to her?" he said.

"I don't know what to say, for I am always terribly stupid at first; I
can never make advances to a woman in the street. I follow them, go
round and round them, and quite closely to them, but I never know what
to say at first. I only once tried to enter into conversation with a
woman in that way. As I clearly saw that she was waiting for me to make
overtures, and as I felt bound to say something, I stammered out, 'I
hope you are quite well, madam?' She laughed in my face, and I made my
escape."

I promised Paul to do all I could to bring about a conversation, and
when we had taken our places again, I politely asked our neighbor:

"Have you any objection to the smell of tobacco, madam?"

She merely replied, "_Non capisco_."[6]

So she was Italian! I felt an absurd inclination to laugh. As Paul did
not understand a word of that language, I was obliged to act as his
interpreter, so I said in Italian:

"I asked you, madam, whether you had any objection to tobacco smoke?"

With an angry look she replied, "_Che mi fa_."[7]

She had neither turned her head nor looked at me, and I really did not
know whether to take this "What does it matter to me" for an
authorization, a refusal, a real sign of indifference, or for a mere
"Leave me alone."

"Madame," I replied, "if you mind the smell of tobacco in the least--"

She again said, "_Mica_,"[8] in a tone of voice which seemed to mean, "I
wish to goodness you would leave me alone!" It was, however, a kind of
permission, so I said to Paul:

"You can smoke."

He looked at me in that curious sort of way that people have when they
try to understand others who are talking in a strange language before
them, and asked me:

"What did you say to her?"

"I asked if we might smoke, and she said we might do whatever we liked."

Whereupon I lighted my cigar.

"Did she not say anything more?"

"If yo