And she went off with the lad, while Bru seized his crook, seeing which the young fellow raised his gun.
"Seize him! seize him!" the shepherd shouted, urging on his dogs, while the other had already got his finger on the trigger to fire at them. But La Morillonne pushed down the muzzle and called out:
"Here, dogs! here! Prr, prr, my beauties!"
And the three dogs rushed up to her, licked her hands and frisked about as they followed her, while she called to the shepherd from the distance:
"You see, Bru, they are not at all jealous!"
And then, with a short and evil laugh, she added:
"They are my property now."
WAITER, A "BOCK"[13]
Why did I enter, on this particular evening, a certain beer shop? I cannot explain it. It was bitterly cold. A fine rain, a watery dust floated about, which enshrouded the gas jets in a transparent fog, made the pavements that passed under the shadow of the shop fronts glitter, and which at once exhibited the soft slush and the soiled feet of the passers-by.