'When they get up from table, let me speak two words with you.'
His solemn manner surprised me. I looked at him more attentively, and remarked a strange alteration in his countenance.
'Do you feel indisposed?' inquired I.
'No!' and he began again to drink.
Presently, amidst shouts and clapping of hands, a child of about eleven years of age, who had slipped under the table, held up before the company a pretty riband of white and red, which he had just detached from the dress of the bride. They called it her garter. It was immediately cut in pieces, and distributed among the young men, who ornamented their button-holes with it, after an old custom which is still observed in some patriarchal families. This made the bride blush to her eyes. But her confusion was at its height, when Monsieur Peyrade, having proclaimed silence, sang to her some Catalonian verses, which, as he said, were impromptu. Their meaning, as nearly as I could comprehend them, were as follows:
'What is the meaning of this, my friends?
Does the wine cause me to see double?
There are two Venus's here'——
At this, the bridegroom suddenly turned his head with an air of affright, which set all the guests a laughing. 'Yes, my friends,' continued Monsieur Peyrade:
'There are two Venus's beneath my roof.
The one I found in the earth like a truffle;
The other, heaven-descended, comes to share with us her girdle.'
He wished to say, 'her garter.'
'My son take which you like best;
The Roman, or the Catalonian Venus.
The rogue chooses the Catalan, and his choice is good.
The Roman is black, the Catalan is fair.
The Roman is cold, the Catalan inflames the hearts of all who approach her.'