"Sitting in water and playing with a cake of soap and a sponge!"
"Why, to try and get myself clean, I suppose!"
"Ach! And how the devil did you get yourself dirty, then?"
To this Little Billee found no immediate answer, and went on with his ablution after the hissing, splashing, energetic fashion of Englishmen; and Svengali laughed loud and long at the spectacle of a little Englishman trying to get himself clean—"tâchant de se nettoyer!"
When such cleanliness had been attained as was possible under the circumstances, Svengali begged for the loan of two hundred francs, and Little Billee gave him a five-franc piece.
Content with this, faute de mieux, the German asked him when he would be trying to get himself clean again, as he would much like to come and see him do it.
"Demang mattang, à votre sairveece!" said Little Billee, with a courteous bow.
"What!! Monday too!! Gott in Himmel! you try to get yourself clean every day?"
And he laughed himself out of the room, out of the house, out of the Place de l'Odéon—all the way to the Rue de Seine, where dwelt the "Man of Blood," whom he meant to propitiate with the story of that original, Little Billee, trying to get himself clean—that he might borrow another five-franc piece, or perhaps two.
