“They earn lots of money—heaps.”
“Pourquoi?”
“I don’t know. They just do. People go to see them. Why don’t they make much money here?”
She shook her head. “I do not know. The people they do not go for see a dancer.... Maybe, if I cannot enter into the Conservatoire, I shall become a dancer and take myself to Amérique. But that is very hard.... One must start in the music-halls, and I do not like.”
“I should say not.” Kendall thought of her in the atmosphere of the Paris music-hall and his soul revolted.
“Pourquoi?” she asked again.
“Mademoiselle Pourquoi.... Because you are a nice child, and the music-halls are not nice.”
She smiled at him. “You theenk I am nice?”
“I think so many things about you...”
“Oh, I do not onderstan’.” Her mock despair was very pathetic until her sudden laughter changed it to delight. In revenge she discharged a volley of rapid French at him for two minutes. “You see?... It is not nice to not onderstan’. You must es-tudy French ver’ hard, and I will es-tudy English so w’en I go to New York...”