When the jig had been repeated five or six times Maria began to look bored and tried to pull the elderly pianist's hand from the key-board, saying in an undertone: "Sing me a song." Obtaining no answer, she turned, looked Barborin straight in the face, and shouted at the top of her voice: "Sing me a song."
"I don't understand," Barborin replied. "I am deaf."
"Why are you deaf?"
"I am deaf," the unfortunate woman answered, smiling.
"But why are you deaf?"
Barborin could not imagine what the child was saying.
"I don't understand," said she.
"Then you are stupid," Maria announced with a very serious face, and knitting her brows, she repeated in a whining voice: "I want a song!"
A voice from the little garden said—
"Here is the person for songs."