u had counted her words you would have noticed that she used
exactly six, two of which gave me to understand that she knew no French,
so four remained, and a lot can be said in four words."

Paul seemed quite unhappy, disappointed, and "at sea," so to speak.

But suddenly the Italian asked me, in that tone of discontent which
seemed habitual to her, "Do you know at what time we shall get to
Genoa?"

"At eleven o'clock," I replied. Then after a moment I went on:

"My friend and I are also going to Genoa, and if we can be of any
service to you, we shall be very happy, as you are quite alone." But she
interrupted with such a "_Mica_" that I did not venture on another word.

"What did she say?" Paul asked.

"She said that she thought you were charming."

But he was in no humor for joking, and begged me, dryly, not to make
fun of him, so I translated her question and my polite offer, which had
been so rudely rejected.

Then he really became as agitated as a squirrel in a cage.

"If we only knew," he said, "what hotel she was going to, we would go to
the same. Try and find out, so as to have another opportunity for making
her speak."

It was not particularly easy, and I did not know what pretext to invent,
anxious as I was to make the acquaintance of this unapproachable person.

We passed Nice, Monaco, Mentone, and the train stopped at the frontier
for the examination of luggage.

Although I hate those badly brought-up people who breakfast and dine in
railway-carriages, I went and bought a quantity of good things to make
one last attack on her by their means. I felt sure that this girl must,
ordinarily, be by no means inaccessible. Something had put her out and
made her irritable, but very little would suffice, a mere word or some
agreeable offer, to decide her and overcome her.

We started again, and we three were still alone. I spread my eatables
out on the seat. I cut up the fowl, put the slices of ham neatly on a
piece of paper, and then carefully laid out our dessert, the
strawberries, plums, cherries, and cakes, close to the girl.

When she saw that we were going to eat she took a piece of chocolate and
two little crisp cakes out of her pocket and began to munch them.

"Ask her to have some of ours," Paul said in a whisper.

"That is exactly what I want to do, but it is rather a difficult
matter."

As she, however, glanced from time to time at our provisions, I felt
sure that she would still be hungr