"And now go and let the cashier pay you what is due to you, Onucz," said Fatia Negra.
And so while he remained behind for the purpose of settling his account Anicza and Fatia Negra retired to a little adjoining chamber. There would be plenty of time for two lovers to talk over their love affairs while so many gold coins were being counted out.
"Where have you been? it's a whole month since I saw you?" asked Anicza sitting on the adventurer's knee. "Do you know how long a month is to me? First quarter, new moon, full moon, last quarter, all this have I watched through and never saw you once, where have you been?"
"I have been abroad for those new machines. That is a business one cannot entrust to another."
"Are there pretty girls abroad?—Might you not fall in love with them?"
"Hush! Those are not the questions that men should be asked."
"Why not?"
"Because men are not in the habit of answering them."
"But suppose a girl wants to know?"
"Then it will go badly with her. Besides, what do you want me to tell you? Would you like to know that I'm such a block, a clod, that no other eye but yours takes any pleasure in looking at me? Or would you like to hear that I am a sort of hermit who has wandered in disguise through seven kingdoms and casts down his eyes whenever he encounters a petticoat? Or that I cross myself and turn away whenever a woman looks at me? Or shall I tell you: in such and such a place I nipped the white cheeks of a pretty blonde, and in such and such a place the coquettrie of a pair of blue eyes made me forget myself, and in such another place I bedded my intoxicated head in the arms of a brunette?—and that after wandering through seven kingdoms I have found no lovelier girl than my own enchanting Anicza?"