She seemed disappointed in the lightness with which apparently he took her search.
“You don’t believe?”
“I believe you. And I believe that you believe. But I have seen little of such things myself. In the meanwhile it would be good to eat––if only a few crackers. Are you afraid to stay here alone while I explore a bit?”
She shook her head.
He was gone some ten minutes, and when he came back his loose robe bulged suspiciously in many places.
“Madame,” he exclaimed, “I beg you to observe me closely. I snap my fingers twice,––so! Then I motion,––so! Behold!”
He deftly extricated from one of the large sleeves a can of soup, and held it triumphantly aloft.
“Once more,––so!”
He produced a package of crackers; next a can of coffee, next some sugar. And she, watching him with face alight, applauded vigorously and with more genuine emotion than usually greets the acts of a prestidigitator.
“But, oh!” she exclaimed, with her hands clasped beneath her chin, “don’t you dare to make them disappear again!”