Well, she told me what it was (pulverised gypsum), and said, “It would keep them sweet and fresh for three months at least, and she didn’t know but more.”
So I put my hand away down into the barrel and pulled out two, and that layer she said was three months old. I held them to the light, and they were as clear as if laid yesterday.
“Boil them,” sais I, and she did so; and I must say it was a wrinkle I didn’t expect to pick up at such a place as that, for nothing could be fresher.
“Here is a dollar,” said I, “for that receipt, for it’s worth knowing, I can tell you.”
“Now,” thinks I, as I took my seat again, “I will try and see if this French gall can talk English.” I asked her, but she shook her head.
So to prove her, sais I, “Doctor, ain’t she a beauty, that? See what lovely eyes she has, and magnificent hair! Oh, if she was well got up, and fashionably dressed, wouldn’t she be a sneezer? What beautiful little hands and feet she has! I wonder if she would marry me, seein’ I am an orthodox man.”
Well, she never moved a muscle; she kept her eyes fixed on her work, and there wasn’t the leastest mite of a smile on her face. I kinder sorter thought her head was rather more stationary, if anything, as if she was listening, and her eyes more fixed, as if she was all attention; but she had dropped a stitch in her knitting, and was taking of it up, so perhaps I might be mistaken. Thinks I, I will try you on t’other tack.
“Doctor, how would you like to kiss her, eh? Ripe-looking lips them, ain’t they? Well, I wouldn’t kiss her for the world,” said I; “I would just as soon think of kissing a ham that is covered with creosote. There is so much ile and smoke on ’em, I should have the taste in my mouth for a week. Phew! I think I taste it now!”
She coloured a little at that, and pretty soon got up and went out of the room; and presently I heard her washing her hands and face like anything,
Thinks I, “You sly fox! you know English well enough to kiss in it anyhow, if you can’t talk in it easy. I thought I’de find you out; for a gall that won’t laugh when you tickle her, can’t help screamin’ a little when you pinch her; that’s a fact.” She returned in a few minutes quite a different lookin’ person, and resumed her usual employment, but still persisted that she did not know English. In the midst of our conversation, the master of the house, Jerome Boudrot, came in. Like most of the natives of Chesencook, he was short in stature, but very active, and like all the rest a great talker.