o people, a lady, who was still young, with a
beautiful sad face, and a boy about my own age, who seemed to be lying
down. It was evidently the little boy who had called out "Bravo!"

I was very surprised at seeing them. I lifted my hat to thank them for
their applause.

"Are you playing for your own pleasure?" asked the lady, speaking French
with a foreign accent.

"I am keeping the dogs in practice and also ... it diverts their
attention."

The child said something. The lady bent over him.

"Will you play again?" she then asked, turning round to me.

Would I play? Play for an audience who had arrived at such a moment! I
did not wait to be asked twice.

"Would you like a dance or a little comedy?" I asked.

"Oh, a comedy," cried the child. But the lady said she preferred a
dance.

"A dance is too short," said the boy.

"If the 'distinguished audience' wishes, after the dance, we will
perform our different roles."

This was one of my master's fine phrases. I tried to say it in the same
grand manner as he. Upon second thought, I was not sorry that the lady
did not wish for a comedy, for I don't see how I could have given a
performance; not only was Zerbino absent, but I had none of the "stage
fittings" with me.

I played the first bars of a waltz. Capi took Dulcie by the waist with
his two paws and they whirled round, keeping good time. Then
Pretty-Heart danced alone. Successively, we went through all our
repertoire. We did not feel tired now. The poor little creatures knew
that they would be repaid with a meal and they did their best. I also.

Then, suddenly, in the midst of a dance in which all were taking part,
Zerbino came out from behind a bush, and as Capi and Dulcie and
Pretty-Heart passed near him, he boldly took his place amongst them.

While playing and watching my actors, I glanced from time to time at
the little boy. He seemed to take great pleasure in what we were doing,
but he did not move. He looked as though he was lying on a stretcher.
The boat had drifted right to the edge of the bank, and now I could see
the boy plainly. He had fair hair. His face was pale, so white that one
could see the blue veins on his forehead. He had the drawn face of a
sick child.

"How much do you charge for seats at your performance?" asked the lady.

"You pay according to the pleasure we have given you."

"Then, Mamma, you must pay a lot," said the child. He added something in
a language that I did not u