, perhaps, onto
the front page of the ballads which he was singing. But what made him
still handsomer, was that his self-conceit had a look of sovereign
indifference for he was not satisfied with not replying to the smiles,
the ogles, and the _p'st, p'st's_, by taking no notice of them; but
when he had finished he shrugged his shoulders, he winked mischievously,
and turned his lips contemptuously, which said very clearly: "The stove
is not being heated for you, my little kittens!"

Often, one might have thought that he expressly wished to show his
contempt, and that he tried to make himself thought unpoetical in the
eyes of all those amorous girls, and to check their love, for he cleared
his throat ostentatiously and offensively, more than was necessary,
after singing, as if he would have liked to spit at them. But all that
did not make him unpoetical in their eyes, and many of them, most of
them, who were absolutely mad on him, went so far as to say that _he did
it like a swell_!

The girl, who in her enthusiasm had been the first to utter that
exclamation of intense passion, and who, after throwing him small
silver, had thrown him a twenty-franc gold piece, at last made up her
mind to have an explanation. Instead of a _p'st, p'st_, she spoke to him
boldly one morning, in the presence of all the others, who religiously
held their tongues.

"Come up here," she called out to him, and from habit she added: "I will
be very nice, you handsome dark fellow."

At first they were dumbfounded at her audacity, and then all their
cheeks flushed with jealousy, and the flame of mad desire shot from
their eyes, from every window there came a perfect torrent of:

"Yes, come up, come up." "Don't go to her! Come to me."

And, meanwhile, there was a shower of half-pence, of francs, of gold
coins, as well as of cigars and oranges, while lace pocket
handkerchiefs, silk neckties, and scarfs fluttered in the air and fell
round the singer, like a flight of many colored butterflies.

He picked up the spoil calmly, almost carelessly, stuffed the money into
his pocket, made a bundle of the furbelows, which he tied up as if they
had been soiled linen, and then raising himself up, and putting his felt
hat on his head, he said:

"Thank you, ladies, but indeed I cannot."

They thought that he did not know how to satisfy so many demands at
once, and one of them said: "Let him choose."

"Yes, yes, that is it!" they all exclaimed unanimousl