“And, then, the dance!”
“Oh, yes! it was at once bounding waving, twisting! There is not such another bayadere under the night-cap of the sky!”
“Gobinet, give me back my shawl directly. You have already spoilt it by rolling it round your great body. I don’t choose to have my things ruined for hulking beasts who call other women bayaderes!”
“Celeste, simmer down. I am disguised as a Turk, and, when I talk of bayaderes, I am only in character.”
“Your Celeste is like them all, Gobinet; she’s jealous of the Bacchanal Queen.”
“Jealous!—do you think me jealous? Well now! that’s too bad. If I chose to be as showy as she is they would talk of me as much. After all, it’s only a nickname that makes her reputation! nickname!”
“In that you have nothing to envy her—since you are called Celeste!”
“You know well enough, Gobinet, that Celeste is my real name.”
“Yes; but it’s fancied a nickname—when one looks in your face.”
“Gobinet, I will put that down to your account.”