'en vais.
Cette compagnie n'est pas de ma choix."

"Allez!" said Ciccio, more loudly.

And Mr. May strutted out of the room like a bird bursting with its
own rage. Ciccio stood with his hands on the table, listening. They
heard Mr. May slam the front door.

"Gone!" said Geoffrey.

Ciccio smiled sneeringly.

"Voyez, un cochon de lait," said Gigi amply and calmly.

Ciccio sat down in his chair. Geoffrey poured out some beer for him,
saying:

"Drink, my Cic', the bubble has burst, prfff!" And Gigi knocked in
his own puffed cheek with his fist. "Allaye, my dear, your health!
We are the Tawaras. We are Allaye! We are Pacohuila! We are
Walgatchka! Allons! The milk-pig is stewed and eaten. Voila!" He
drank, smiling broadly.

"One by one," said Geoffrey, who was a little drunk: "One by one we
put them out of the field, they are _hors de combat_. Who remains?
Pacohuila, Walgatchka, Allaye--"

He smiled very broadly. Alvina was sitting sunk in thought and
torpor after her sudden anger.

"Allaye, what do you think about? You are the bride of Tawara," said
Geoffrey.

Alvina looked at him, smiling rather wanly.

"And who is Tawara?" she asked.

He raised his shoulders and spread his hands and swayed his head
from side to side, for all the world like a comic mandarin.

"There!" he cried. "The question! Who is Tawara? Who? Tell me!
Ciccio is he--and I am he--and Max and Louis--" he spread his hand
to the distant members of the tribe.

"I can't be the bride of all four of you," said Alvina, laughing.

"No--no! No--no! Such a thing does not come into my mind. But you
are the Bride of Tawara. You dwell in the tent of Pacohuila. And
comes the day, should it ever be so, there is no room for you in the
tent of Pacohuila, then the lodge of Walgatchka the bear is open for
you. Open, yes, wide open--" He spread his arms from his ample
chest, at the end of the table. "Open, and when Allaye enters, it is
the lodge of Allaye, Walgatchka is the bear that serves Allaye. By
the law of the Pale Face, by the law of the Yenghees, by the law of
the Fransayes, Walgatchka shall be husband-bear to Allaye, that day
she lifts the door-curtain of his tent--"

He rolled his eyes and looked around. Alvina watched him.

"But I might be afraid of a husband-bear," she said.

Geoffrey got on to his feet.

"By the Manitou," he said, "the head of the bear Walgatchka is
humble--" here Geoffrey bowed his head--"his teeth are as soft as
lili