“I was afraid she would take me for a simpleton if I did not do so.”
“Then do you think you committed a sin in kissing her like that?”
“Certainly not, for it was very unpleasant for me.”
“Then why won’t you make the same effort on my behalf?”
She said nothing, and when we got to the inn I ordered them to light a fire and to get a good supper ready.
The waiter asked me if I would like some oysters, and noticing the curiosity of my guests on the subject I asked him how much they were.
“They are from the arsenal at Venice,” he replied, “and we can’t sell them under fifty pains a hundred.”
“Very good, I will take a hundred, but you must open them here.”
Armelline was horrified to think that I was going to pay five crowns for her whim, and begged me to revoke the order; but she said nothing when I told her that no pleasure of hers could be bought too dearly by me.
At this she took my hand and would have carried it to her lips, but I took it away rather roughly, greatly to her mortification.