He took the glass in his hand, and bowed to me.
"I know what you wish," he said, blinking his eyes at me, and threatening
me with his finger. "You wish to make me drunk, so as to see what you can
get out of me; but no, you sha'n't have that gratification."
"Why should I make you drunk?" I inquired. "All I wished was to give you a
pleasure."
He seemed really sorry that he had offended me by interpreting my
insistence so harshly. He grew confused, stood up, and touched my elbow.
"No, no," said he, looking at me with a beseeching expression in his moist
eyes. "I was only joking."
And immediately after he made use of some horribly uncultivated slang
expression, intended to signify that I was, nevertheless, a fine young man.
"_Je ne vous dis que ça_," he said in conclusion. In this fashion the
minstrel and I continued to drink and converse; and the waiters continued
unceremoniously to stare at us, and, as it seemed, to make ridicule of us.
In spite of the interest which our conversation aroused in me, I could not
avoid taking notice of their behavior; and I confess I began to grow more
and more angry.
One of the waiters arose, came up to the little man, and, regarding the top
of his head, began to smile. I was already full of wrath against the
inmates of the hotel, and had not yet had a chance to pour it out on any
one; and now I confess I was in the highest degree irritated by this
audience of waiters.
The porter, not removing his hat, came into the room, and sat down near me,
leaning his elbows on the table. This last circumstance, which was so
insulting to my dignity or my vainglory, completely enraged me, and gave an
outlet for all the wrath which all the evening long had been boiling within
me. I asked myself why he had so humbly bowed when he had met me before,
and now, because I was sitting with the travelling minstrel, he came and
took his place near me so rudely? I was entirely overmastered by that
boiling, angry indignation which I enjoy in myself, which I sometimes
endeavor to stimulate when it comes over me, because it has an exhilarating
effect upon me, and gives me, if only for a short time, a certain
extraordinary flexibility, energy, and strength in all my physical and
moral faculties.