In spite of his fatness, however, he was immaculate in European clothing; he charged exorbitantly and achieved extraordinary results.
"He said the last time that I should marry a poet," Marie-Louise informed them, "which isn't true. I am not going to be married at all. But it amuses me to hear him."
The black eyes of the fat Armenian twinkled. "There will be a time when you will not be amused. You will be married."
He pulled out a chair for her. "Will your friends stay while I tell you the rest?"
"No, they are children; they want to buy peanuts and pop-corn—they want to play."
The others laughed. But the fat Armenian did not laugh. "Your soul is old!"
"You see," she asked the others, "what I mean? He says things like that to me. He told me once that in a former incarnation I had walked beside the Nile and had loved a king."
"A king-poet," the man corrected.
"Will you tell mine?" Eve asked suddenly.
"Certainly, madam."