This spectacle, I avow, might have made any other man pause in his

zealous operations,--not so my uncle, however; he did not think twice

about it, but with his usual unconcerned air proceeded to open out the

fair one's stays, then took up the water-bottle, and emptied it with one

dash into the hollow between her rounded charms.

A convulsive start, and another scream, indicated immediately the

successful effect of this triumphant measure.

"There!" he said to me, "you see that's all that was needed."

Just at this moment the gentleman who belonged to the lady came in. It

is hardly necessary to add that when he saw my uncle occupied upon a

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business so distinctly his own, the new-comer evinced some temper.

"Bon Dieu!" he shouted out as he rushed forward, "What's the meaning

of this? What's the meaning of this?"

"Nothing serious!" answered the pasha. "Your lady has simply been in a

swoon, nothing more; it's all over now!"

"But what have you been about, sir? What do you mean by throwing water

like that, right upon people's bosoms--?"

"It was all to do you a service," replied this saviour, quite

composedly.

The lady, for her part, looked as if she was going off in another fit,

but my uncle, judging no doubt that he had fulfilled his part of the

duties, and without troubling himself any further about the mingled

alarms and stares of the people of the house who came up, made one of

his ceremonious bows to the whole company, and took me away with him,

saying, "Come, let us drink our madeira."

So we went out.

Being accustomed to Barbassou-Pasha's ways, I was certainly not

surprised at such a trifle as this. The waiter having served us, ten

minutes had elapsed, and while we were discussing the irreparable loss

of the Xerez and Douro vines, all of a sudden the door opened. It was

the lady's cavalier, and he came in raging like a storm.

"Bagasse!" he exclaimed with a furious look, and his hair bristling up

like a porcupine. "But you won't get off quite so easily as that, sir!

Who ever heard of such a thing? Undressing a defenceless woman like

that, and quite a stranger too!! Not to mention that you have spoilt her

dress, which looks as if she had been under the pump!"

His words rolled on like a torrent, in the purest Provençal accent. This

made my uncle smile, as if at some pleasant reminiscence; and putting on

his most engaging expression, he asked the new-comer in a gentle tone of

voice: "What are you to this lady?"




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