“Why copy the English?” said the proprietor. “Think of the price they are charging us for coal.”
“An iron bedstead looks rather cold in a room.”
“Yes. More suitable for old maids.”
“Be quiet, Jules. I assure you, madame, that if you are going to have a pretty room for yourself and Monsieur——”
They bought the wooden bed, and walked on to the Rue Dumeril, where Manon had discovered two shops that had pleased her, one of them a bazaar that supplied anything from a table-knife to an enamelled soap-dish. At another shop over the way Manon bought material for curtains, some cheaper bedding, and two rugs. She had her lists made out in a note-book, a hypothetical price placed against each article, and she worked methodically through each list, refusing to be hurried. It was a very serious affair this restocking of a kitchen and a linen cupboard, with every sheet, towel and blanket to be examined and handled, and Paul saw that it would take days.
“I shall leave you at home this afternoon,” she told him, as they walked back to dine at the auberge; “a man in a draper’s shop is like a dog on a string.”
He laughed.
“It does not bore me, you know. I just stand and look at you.”
“Yes, and it upsets my ideas.”
“I’ll go shopping on my own; there are those tools and fencing wire that I want to take back to-morrow in Talmas’ cart.”