And, while the darkness falls like a veil over the Japanese town, I have leisure to reflect, with as much melancholy as I please, upon the bargain that is being concluded behind me.
Night has closed in; it has been necessary to light the lamps.
It is ten o'clock when all is finally settled, and M.Kangourou comes to tell me: "All is arranged, Monsieur: her parents will give her up for twenty dollars a month--the same price as Mademoiselle Jasmin." On hearing this, I am possessed suddenly with extreme vexation that I should have made up my mind so quickly to link myself in ever so fleeting and transient a manner with this little creature, and dwell with her in this isolated house.
We return to the room; she is the centre of the circle and seated; and they have placed the aigrette of flowers in her hair.

There is actually some expression in her glance, and I am almost persuaded that she--this one--thinks.
Yves is astonished at her modest attitude, at her little timid airs of a young girl on the verge of matrimony; he had imagined nothing like it in such a connection as this, nor I either, I must confess.
"She is really very pretty, brother," said he; "very pretty, take my word for it!" These good folks, their customs, this scene, strike him dumb with astonishment; he can not get over it, and remains in a maze.

"Oh! this is too much," he says, and the idea of writing a long letter to his wife at Toulven, describing it all, diverts him greatly.
Chrysantheme and I join hands.

Yves, too, advances and touches the dainty little paw.

After all, if I wed her, it is chiefly his fault; I never should have remarked her without his observation that she was pretty.