“It was as I said,” whispered the dwarf, and he touched her shoulder. This was the full cup of shame. She was silent.
“There are others,” he whispered again. She could not see his strange smile; but she noticed that his voice was not as usual. “Listen,” he urged, and he sang softly over her shoulder for quite a minute. She was amazed.
“Sing again,” she said.
“I have wanted to sing to you like that for many years,” he replied; and he sang a little more. “He cannot sing like that,” he wheedled, and he stretched his arm around her shoulder.
She hung her head, then flung it back again as she thought of Armand.
“I hate him!” she cried; “I hate him!”
“You will not throw meal on me any more, or call me idiot?” he pleaded.
“No, Parpon,” she said.
He kissed her on the cheek. She did not resent it. But now he drew away, smiled wickedly at her, and said: “See, we are even now, poor Julie!” Then he laughed, holding his little sides with huge hands. “Imbecile!” he added, and, turning, trotted away towards the Rock of Red Pigeons.
She threw herself, face forward, in the dusty needles of the pines.