"She is from Havana--the most Spanish region to be found in the New
World. So she preferred to feign terror rather than cast in my teeth
indisposition or difficulty, coquetry or duty, like a Parisian woman.
By her golden eyes, how glad I shall be to sleep."
He saw a hackney coach standing at the corner of Frascati's waiting
for some gambler; he awoke the driver, was driven home, went to bed,
and slept the sleep of the dissipated, which for some queer reason--of
which no rhymer has yet taken advantage--is as profound as that of
innocence. Perhaps it is an instance of the proverbial axiom,
_extremes meet_.
About noon De Marsay awoke and stretched himself; he felt the grip of
that sort of voracious hunger which old soldiers can remember having
experienced on the morrow of victory. He was delighted, therefore, to
see Paul de Manerville standing in front of him, for at such a time
nothing is more agreeable than to eat in company.
"Well," his friend remarked, "we all imagined that you had been shut
up for the last ten days with the girl of the golden eyes."
"The girl of the golden eyes! I have forgotten her. Faith! I have
other fish to fry!"
"Ah! you are playing at discretion."
"Why not?" asked De Marsay, with a laugh. "My dear fellow, discretion
is the best form of calculation. Listen--however, no! I will not say a
word. You never teach me anything; I am not disposed to make you a
gratuitous present of the treasures of my policy. Life is a river
which is of use for the promotion of commerce.
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