“Hello, my friend.”
“I must congratulate you, comrade; what you did yesterday is one of the funniest things I ever heard of.”
“Who told you about it?”
“Why, they talk of nothing else in the whole town! This morning, some were still betting that your corpse was at the bottom of the river, and they went out in boats; but instead of the fish they expected to catch, they pulled out a rock wrapped in a cloak. All Cordova is laughing at the affair. You certainly were a good one.”
“But listen, comrade,” said Quentin, pointing to the garret, “what kind of a lark have you in that cage?”
“Ah! That’s true! It’s a crazy woman. She says she’s in love with me, and in order to get rid of her, I brought her to this place, where she can’t bother me.”
“How did she get here? Along the roofs, too?”
“Yes; disguised as a man. In her pantaloons she had a look about her that was enough to make you want to kick her in the stomach and throw her into the courtyard.”
“Very well, then; let’s go to the garret, where breakfast is waiting. The thing I hate about this, comrade, is not being able to get out.”
“Well, it’s impossible now; the police have their eyes peeled.”