How was Annette to know?
"Well, I was making verses about ma petite. I was describing her eyes, and her ears, and all her beautiful face."
"Oh, Monsieur!" and again came the blood to her face till her cheeks rivalled the crimson dye of the vetch at their ponies' feat. Then in a little,
"What did Monsieur say about my ears? They are like those of all the
Metis girls; and I do not think that they are as pretty as Julie's."
Then he replied with the lines,
"Shells of rosy pink and silver are most like her dainty ears;
Shells wherein the fisher maiden the sad Nereid's singing hears."
"Oh, indeed Monsieur, my ears are not at all beautiful like that; indeed they're not." Then slightly changing her tone, "Perhaps le capitaine made these about some white maiden whose ears are, like that."
"What an ungrateful little creature it is!"
"No, but Monsieur cannot make me believe that my ears resemble shells, coloured in pink and silver. In his heart he is comparing my brown skin with the snow-white complexions of some of his Caucasian girls, and thinking how horrid mine is."
"Why, you irreconcilable little wretch, it is your complexion that most of all I adore. It is not 'brown;' who told you that it was? The colour of your skin I described in these lines, though you do not deserve that I should repeat them to you:"