"Come up here," she called out to him, and from habit she added: "I will be very nice, you handsome dark fellow."
At first they were dumbfounded at her audacity, and then all their cheeks flushed with jealousy, and the flame of mad desire shot from their eyes, from every window there came a perfect torrent of:
"Yes, come up, come up." "Don't go to her! Come to me."
And, meanwhile, there was a shower of half-pence, of francs, of gold coins, as well as of cigars and oranges, while lace pocket handkerchiefs, silk neckties, and scarfs fluttered in the air and fell round the singer, like a flight of many colored butterflies.
He picked up the spoil calmly, almost carelessly, stuffed the money into his pocket, made a bundle of the furbelows, which he tied up as if they had been soiled linen, and then raising himself up, and putting his felt hat on his head, he said:
"Thank you, ladies, but indeed I cannot."
They thought that he did not know how to satisfy so many demands at once, and one of them said: "Let him choose."
"Yes, yes, that is it!" they all exclaimed unanimously.
But he repeated: "I tell you, I cannot."
They thought he was excusing himself out of gallantry, and several of them exclaimed, almost with tears of emotion: "Women are all heart!" And the same voice that had spoken before, (it was one of the girls who wished to settle the matter amicably), said: "We must draw lots."