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He will show you the famous sunsets, if they still go on DO they go on? The sun set for me so long ago. But that's not a reason. Besides, I shall never miss you; you think you are too important. Take her to the Piazza; it used to be very pretty," Miss Bordereau continued, addressing herself to me. "What have they done with the funny old church? I hope it hasn't tumbled down.
I think there is no more money to be made by literature." "Perhaps you don't choose good subjects. What do you write about?" Miss Bordereau inquired. "About the books of other people. I'm a critic, an historian, in a small way." I wondered what she was coming to. "And what other people, now?"
The place was hushed and void; the quiet neighborhood had gone to sleep. A lamp, here and there, over the narrow black water, glimmered in double; the voice of a man going homeward singing, with his jacket on his shoulder and his hat on his ear, came to us from a distance. This did not prevent the scene from being very comme il faut, as Miss Bordereau had called it the first time I saw her.
Then we spoke of Esterhazy, 'that fine type for a melodrama or a novel of the romantic school, as M. Zola often remarked. The Commandant had just acknowledged to the 'Times' and the 'Daily Chronicle' that the famous bordereau had been penned by him, and we laughed at the remembrance of his squabbles on this subject with the proprietress of another newspaper.
Miss Tita wanted to know what I had done to her; her aunt had told her that I had made her so angry. I declared I had done nothing I had been exceedingly careful; to which my companion rejoined that Miss Bordereau had assured her she had had a scene with me a scene that had upset her.
I told her that this was a great satisfaction to me and a great honor; but all the same I should like to ask what had made Miss Bordereau change so suddenly. It was only the other day that she wouldn't suffer me near her.
Our little bargain was just concluded when the door opened and the younger lady appeared on the threshold. As soon as Miss Bordereau saw her niece she cried out almost gaily, "He will give three thousand three thousand tomorrow!" Miss Tita stood still, with her patient eyes turning from one of us to the other; then she inquired, scarcely above her breath, "Do you mean francs?"
She evidently meant that but for this her niece would never have got on at all; the point of the observation however being lost on Miss Tita, though she blushed at hearing her history revealed to a stranger. Miss Bordereau went on, addressing herself to me: "And what time will you come tomorrow with the money?" "The sooner the better. If it suits you I will come at noon."
As if to give the conversation a turn that would put our companion in a light more favorable she said to me, "Didn't I tell you the other night that she had sent me out? You see that I can do what I like!" "Do you pity her do you teach her to pity herself?" Miss Bordereau demanded before I had time to answer this appeal. "She has a much easier life than I had when I was her age."
"Yes, of money certainly of money!" Miss Tita hastened to exclaim. "I am sure you have your own branches of knowledge," I took the liberty of saying, genially. There was something painful to me, somehow, in the turn the conversation had taken, in the discussion of the rent. "She had a very good education when she was young. I looked into that myself," said Miss Bordereau.
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