The girl, who had spoken English, made room for him beside her, and as the brake drove on, she put her arm round him and called him, “My dear.” She had been drinking a little, but she was a very good young woman.
“I talk English, my dear; I love the English: some of them, what? We had two English in our house. Mr. and Mrs. Watson; do you know them? To-day, we been to a wedding.”
Here one of the musicians handed her a wicker-covered blue glass liqueur-bottle with a tin measure which could be screwed over the stopper.
“Isn’t Paco dreadful?” she said. “First we had wine: then we had brandy: now he’s going to give us all the Milk of Venus. We shall all be drunk, Paco.”
“No, no, not for you,” Paco said. “But for the Englishman.” They gave Hi a swig of the Milk of Venus, which revived him wonderfully: then they took swigs of it themselves till it was all gone: then they threw the bottle at Uncle Philip (as they called the rider), hit his horse on the crupper and made him buck. The plump young woman was very kind; she put her arm a good deal more tightly round Hi and said that she did love stars.
“You know, stars in the evening: they’re so like angels.”
Hi said that she was like an angel.
“A bit fallen angel; I don’t think: what?” she said.
A man with a mahogany-coloured face, “rather like a frog,” Hi thought, since his eyes turned up and his face was all going to throat, began to sing a doleful ballad, with a chorus in which all joined. As all felt better after this, one of the other men sang a song which went with great spirit, though it made the ladies blush. As he was pleased with its reception, he sang all the blushing parts of it a second time. Then the frog man produced a bag from under the seat: it contained three small bottles with brightly coloured labels showing ladies of a free disposition. The labels were printed with the words: “Smiles of the Muses.” There was much applause in the brake when they appeared.
“Ha. Smiles of the Muses. Three bottles.”