“Did you ever see such an ugly mug?”
Where she gets her occasional bits of slang from I do not know; but her little foreign staccato pronunciation gives them unusual quaintness. I laughed, and Carlotta, throwing Polyphemus off her lap, laughed too, and sidled up against me. The cat regarded us for a moment with a disgusted eye, then stretched himself as if he had quitted Carlotta of his own accord, and walked away in a state of dignified boredom.
“Hamdi is like a pig and an elephant and a great fat turkey,” said Carlotta.
“If all the world were beautiful,” I exclaimed, “such a thing as our appreciation of beauty would not exist. I should not even be aware that my Carlotta was beautiful.”
She put her hands on my knees in her impulsive way, and bending forward looked at me delightedly.
“Oh, you do think so?”
“You are the loveliest and most intoxicating creature on the earth, Carlotta.”
“Now I am sure, sure, sure,” she cried, enraptured. “You have never said it before, Seer Marcous darling, and I must kiss you.”
I checked her with my hands on her soft shoulders.
“Only if you promise to marry me.”