"She wants to know if we should like her to come with us."
My friend's utter surprise restored my self-possession. He stammered:
"With us? Where to? What for? How?"
"I don't know, but she made this strange proposal to me in a most
irritable voice. I told her that we were going to the hotel, and she
said: 'Very well, let us all go there!' I suppose she is without a
halfpenny. She certainly has a very strange way of making
acquaintances."
Paul, who was very much excited, exclaimed:
"I am quite agreeable. Tell her that we will take her wherever she
likes." Then, after a moment's hesitation, he said uneasily:
"We must know, however, with whom she wants to go--with you or with me?"
I turned to the Italian, who did not even seem to be listening to us,
and said:
"We shall be very happy to take you with us, but my friend wants to know
whether you will take my arm or his?"
She opened her black eyes wide with vague surprise, and said, "_Che mi
fa_?"
I was obliged to explain myself. "In Italy, I believe, when a man looks
after a woman, fulfills all her wishes, and satisfies all her caprices,
he is called a _patito_. Which of us two will you take for your
_patito_?"
Without the slightest hesitation she replied:
"You!"
I turned to Paul. "You see, my friend, she chooses me; you have no
chance."
"All the better for you," he replied, in a rage. Then, after thinking
for a few moments, he went on:
"Do you really care about taking this creature with you? She will spoil
our journey. What are we to do with this woman, who looks like I don't
know what? They will not take us in at any decent hotel."
I, however, just began to find the Italian much nicer than I had thought
her at first, and I was now very anxious to take her with us. The idea
delighted me. I already felt those little shivers which the expectation
of a night of love sends through the veins.
I replied, "My dear fellow, we have accepted and it is too late to
recede. You were the first to advise me to say 'Yes.'"
"It is very stupid," he growled, "but do as you please."
The train whistled, slackened speed, and we ran into the station.
I got out of the carriage, and offered my new companion my hand. She
jumped out lightly, and I gave her my arm, which she took with an air of
seeming repugnance. As soon as we had claimed our luggage we started off
into the town, Paul walking in utter silence.
"To what hotel shall we go?" I asked him. "It may be difficult to get
into the _City of Paris_ with a woman, especially with this Italian."
Paul interrupted me. "Yes, with an Italian who looks more like a
strumpet than a duchess. However, that is no business of mine. Do just
as you please."
I was in a state of perplexity. I had written to the _City of Paris_ to
retain our rooms, and now I did not know what to do.
Two commissionaires followed us with our luggage. I continued: "You
might as well go on first, and say that we are coming; and give the
landlord to understand that I have a--a friend with me, so that we
should like rooms quite by themselves for us three, so as not to be
brought in contact with other travelers. He will understand, and we will
decide according to his answer."
But Paul growled, "Thank you; such sort of commissions and such parts do
not suit me by any means. I did not come here to get ready your
apartments or to minister to your pleasures."
But I was urgent: "Look here, don't be angry. It is surely far better to
go to a good hotel than to a bad one, and it is not difficult to ask the
landlord for three separate bedrooms and a dining-room."