enegro. Outside, below the terrace, the sea rolled,
the waves slapping wetly on the beach. The air was warm, the sky bright
with stars, in the plane trees a nightingale sang... It was Tartarin who
paid the bill.

Chapter 21.

The Montenegrin prince was as good as his word. Shortly after the
reunion at the Restaurant des Platanes he arrived early one morning at
Tartarin's room. "Quick!... quick!... get dressed" he said, "Your Moor has
been found... her name is Baia... as pretty as a picture, twenty years
old and already a widow." "A widow!.... Well that's a bit of luck" Said
Tartarin who was a little uneasy at the thought of Moorish husbands.
"Yes, but closely guarded by her brother" "Oh! That's a bit awkward"
"A ferocious Moor who sells hookahs in the bazaar" There was a silence,
"Good!" Said the prince, "You're not the chap to be put off by a little
thing like that, and anyway we can perhaps buy off this villain by
purchasing some of his pipes. So come on, get dressed... you lucky dog!"

Pale and excited, his heart full of love, Tartarin jumped out of bed and
as he climbed into his ample underwear he asked "What shall I do now?"
"Write to the lady quite simply and ask for a meeting" "She understands
French then?" Said Tartarin with an air of disappointment. For his
dreams had been of an Arabian Houri, uncontaminated by the west. "She
doesn't understand a word" Replied the prince imperturbably, "but you
will dictate the letter to me and I shall translate it." "Oh prince,
how good you are." And Tartarin strode about the room silent and deep in
thought.

As you may imagine one does not write to a Moorish lady as one might to
a little shop-girl in Beaucaire. Happily our hero was able to cull from
his reading many phrases of oriental rhetoric and combining these with
some distant memories of the "Song of Songs" he was able to compose the
most flowery epistle you could wish for, full of unlikely similes and
improbable metaphors. With this romantic missive Tartarin would have
liked to combine a bouquet of flowers with emblematic meanings, but
prince Gregory thought it would be better to buy some pipes from the
brother, which could not fail to soften the savage temperament of the
gentleman and would please the lady, who greatly enjoyed smoking. "Let
us go quickly then and buy some pipes," Said Tartarin. "No, no." Replied
the prince, "Let me go alone, I shall get them at a better price." "Oh
prince! How good you are t