My Neighbor Raymond (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XI)Kock, Paul de
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My Neighbor Raymond (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XI)
Kock, Paul de
French fiction -- Translations into English
"Wait, mamma," she said; "I'll put my chair behind yours, and then you
can lean on me; I'll hold you up."
The mother consented to this arrangement, and the young woman remounted
her chair, which she placed behind her mamma's; but I noticed that she
had somebody to support her; a tall, light-haired youngster kept his
eyes on her all the time; he stationed himself close beside her, looked
at her, and made signs to her. The young woman looked at nothing but
Bobèche; and as she explained the performance to her mother, she took a
little note from her glove and dropped it into the young man's hand,
without the slightest confusion or affectation, and without interrupting
her conversation. Really, our young ladies display a fascinating grace
in all that they do; the world is progressing toward perfection.
The tall youth crumpled the note in his hand; he longed to read it at
once, but he dared not. I was amused by his impatience; I was curious
to see what he would do. But an elderly couple arrived, dragging their
chairs after them; the woman planted herself directly in front of me,
almost resting against my face, while her husband deprived me of what
little view I had by standing beside her.
I could endure it no longer; to induce me to remain with my head on a
level with the waists of all that multitude, I felt that something
deeply interesting was necessary. I was not at all desirous to maintain
my juxtaposition to the enormous circumference which obscured my vision.
So I extricated myself, not without difficulty, from the chairs and legs
and dresses that surrounded me. When I was outside the circle, I stopped
to breathe a bit; it is good to inhale the fresh air when one has seen
Bobèche, even out of doors.
I followed a noble avenue of lindens which led to the large tract of
grass set aside for swings and seesaws and blind-man's-buff and the
Egyptian bird, and a thousand other things, of which the prettiest are
those one does not see. I heard ladies' voices imploring their escorts
not to go so fast; while the latter, to display their strength and
skill, made all the play they could with their loins and knees, at the
risk of making their companions in the swings swoon from fright: that
was a new way to make one's self agreeable, I thought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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