"Everything is finished," I said, and she bent down and kissed me as she
said good-bye--a mother's kiss.
* * * * *
And now I am alone, and what shall I do all the evening? or all the
other evenings--? I will send for Suzette to dine.
* * * * *
_Night_--Suzette--was amusing--. I told her at once I did not require
her to be affectionate.
"You can have an evening's rest from blandishments, Suzette."
"_Merci!_"--and then she stretched herself, kicked up her little feet,
in their short-vamped, podgy little shoes, with four-inch heels, and lit
a cigarette.
"Life is hard, _Mon ami_"--she told me--"And now that the English are
here, it is difficult to keep from falling in love."
For a minute I thought she was going to insinuate that I had aroused her
reflection--I warmed--but no--She had taken me seriously when I told her
I required no blandishments.
That ugly little twinge came to me again.
"You like the English?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"They are very _bons garçons_, they are clean, and they are fine men,
they have sentiment, too--Yes, it is difficult not to feel," she sighed.
"What do you do when you fall in love then, Suzette?"
"_Mon ami_, I immediately go for a fortnight to the sea--one is lost if
one falls in love _dans le metier_--The man tramples then--tramples and
slips off--For everything good one must never feel."
"But you have a kind heart Suzette--you feel for me?"
"_Hein?_"--and she showed all her little white pointed
teeth--"Thou?--Thou art very rich, _mon chou_. Women will always feel
for thee!"
It went in like a knife it was so true--.
"I was a very fine Englishman once," I said.
"It is possible, thou art still, sitting, and showing the right
profile--and full of _chic_--and then rich, rich!"
"You could not forget that I am rich, Suzette?"
"If I did I might love you--_Jamais!_"
"And does the sea help to prevent an attack?"--
"Absence--and I go to a poor place I knew when I was young, and I wash
and cook, and make myself remember what _la vie dure_ was--and would be
again if one loved--Bah! that does it. I come back cured--and ready only
to please such as thou, Nicholas!--rich, rich!"
* * * * *