"Alas! yes, monsieur—and by my own fault. I had so long heard emerald eyes praised that I wished for them, and ever since that time have lost my sight. I do not even know whether my eyes are as pretty as they have been said to be. Will you be so kind as to tell me what is your impression on the subject? Look at me. Do you think that emerald eyes go well with my face?"
Alméric wished to say that he thought her eyes beautiful, to console her for having lost her sight, but the old beggar was inexorable.
"Your eyes are abominably ugly!" he said, roughly.
"Impossible!" replied the cat. "They must shine?"
"No!" cried the old man; "nothing shines out of its place! Take my advice—hide them, put on spectacles; and if ever you have any more emeralds, make them into rings and not into eyes."
"FLY QUICKLY!"
And, once more, the young man could not refrain from laughing at this reflection.
On quitting the dining-room, they entered a superb court paved in mosaic and surrounded by elegant columns.
They there perceived a bird which, by its plumage, might have been taken for a vulture, but whose timid bearing had nothing of the bird of prey in it.