The girl looked at him in amazement, and he, angry at her, turned upon
his heel and left her. She leaned her arms upon the parapet of the
bridge, and looked down into the dark water. The river always
fascinated her at night, and she often paused to look at it when
crossing the bridge, shuddering as she did so. She cried a little as
she thought of his abrupt departure, and wondered if she had been too
harsh with him. After all, it was not very much he had asked her to do,
and they did pay her so little at the Pharmacie. And then perhaps her
lover was poor, and needed the articles he had asked her to get.
Perhaps he was ill, and had said nothing. There was a touch on her
shoulder. She looked round. Jean was standing beside her, but the frown
had not yet disappeared from his brow.
"Give me that paper," he said, abruptly.
She unclosed her hand, and he picked the paper from it, and was turning
away.
"Stop!" she said, "I will get you what you want, but I will myself put
the money in the till for what they cost."
He stood there, looking at her for a moment, and then said--"Lurine, I
think you are a little fool. They owe you ever so much more than that.
However, I must have the things," and he gave her back the paper with
the caution--"Be sure you let no one see that, and be very certain that
you get the right things." He walked with her as far as the corner of
the Rue de Lille. "You are not angry with me?" he asked her before they
parted.
"I would do anything for you," she whispered, and then he kissed her
good night.
She got the chemicals when the proprietor was out, and tied them up
neatly, as was her habit, afterwards concealing them in the little
basket in which she carried her lunch. The proprietor was a sharp-eyed
old lynx, who looked well after his shop and his pretty little
assistant.
"Who has been getting so much chlorate of potash?" he asked, taking
down the jar, and looking sharply at her.
The girl trembled.
"It is all right," she said. "Here is the money in the till."
"Of course," he said. "I did not expect you to give it away for
nothing. Who bought it?"
"An old man," replied the girl, trembling still, but the proprietor did
not notice that--he was counting the money, and found it right.
"I was wondering what he wanted with so much of it. If he comes in
again look sharply at him, and be able to describe him to me. It seems
suspicious." Why it seemed suspicious Lurine did not know, but she
passed an anxious time until she took the basket in her hand and went
to meet her lover at the corner of the Rue des Pyramides. His first
question was--
"Have you brought me the things?"
"Yes," she answered. "Will you take them here, now?"
"Not here, not here," he replied hurriedly, and then asked anxiously,
"Did anyone see you take them?"
"No, but the proprietor knows of the large package, for he counted the
money."
"What money?" asked Jean.
"Why, the money for the things. You didn't think I was going to steal
them, did you?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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