“Oh, Japanese! Parisian Japanese, then! At all events, it is very funny, and the title is Little Moo-Moo! There is a scene on board a flower-decked boat! Oh, it is so amusing, so original, so natural! and a delightful song for Little Moo-Moo!”
Then, as Zilah glanced at Varhely, uneasy, and anxious to get away, the Baroness puckered up her rosy lips and sang the stanzas of the Japanese maestro.
Why, sung by Judic or Theo, it would create a furore! All Paris would be singing.
“Oh, by the way,” she cried, suddenly interrupting herself, “what have you done to Jacquemin? Yes, my friend Jacquemin?”
“Jacquemin?” repeated Zilah; and he thought of the garret in the Rue Rochechouart, and the gentle, fairhaired woman, who was probably at this very moment leaning over the cribs of her little children—the children of Monsieur Puck, society reporter of ‘L’Actualite’
“Yes! Why, Jacquemin has become a savage; oh, indeed! a regular savage! I wanted to bring him to Etretat; but no, he wouldn’t come. It seems that he is married. Jacquemin married! Isn’t it funny? He didn’t seem like a married man! Poor fellow! Well, when I invited him, he refused; and the other day, when I wanted to know the reason, he answered me (that is why I speak to you about it), ‘Ask Prince Zilah’! So, tell me now, what have you done to poor Jacquemin?”
“Nothing,” said the Prince.
“Oh, yes, you have; you have changed him! He, who used to go everywhere and be so jolly, now hides himself in his den, and is never seen at all. Just see how disagreeable it is! If he had come with us, he would have written an account in ‘L’Actualite’ of Little Moo-Moo, and Yamada’s operetta would already be celebrated.”
“So,” continued the Baroness, “when I return to Paris, I am going to hunt him up. A reporter has no right to make a bear of himself!”
“Don’t disturb him, if he cares for his home now,” said Zilah, gravely. “Nothing can compensate for one’s own fireside, if one loves and is loved.”