wisted up, their eyes
blinking in the sudden blaze of sunlight, their complexions dull and
their eyes still heavy from want of sleep.

They swayed themselves backwards and forwards to his slow melody, and
gave themselves up to the enjoyment of it, and coppers, and even silver,
poured into the handsome singer's hat, and more than one of them would
have liked to have followed the penny which she threw to him, and to
have gone with the singer who had the voice of a siren, and who seemed
to say to all these amorous girls; "Come, come to my retreat, where you
will find a palace of crystal and gold, and wreaths which are always
fresh, and happiness and love which never die."

That was what they seemed to hear, those unhappy girls, when they heard
him sing the songs of the old legends, which they had formerly believed.
That was what they understood by the foolish words of the ballad. Then
and nothing else, for how could any one doubt it, on seeing the fresh
roses on their cheeks, and the tender flame which flickered like a
mystic night-light in their eyes, which had, for the moment, become the
eyes of innocent young girls again? But of young girls, who had grown up
very quickly, alas! who were very precocious, and who very soon became
the women that they were, poor vendors of love, always in search of love
for which they were paid.

That was why, when he had finished his second ballad, and sometimes even
sooner, concupiscent looks appeared in their eyes. The boatman of their
dreams, the water-sprite of fairy tales, vanished in the mist of their
childish recollections, and the singer re-assumed his real shape, that
of musician and strolling player, whom they wished to pay, to be their
lover. And the coppers and small silver were showered on him again, with
engaging smiles, with the leers of a street-walker, even with: "_p'st,
p'st_," which soon transformed the barrack-like courtyard into an
enormous cage full of twittering birds, while some of them could not
restrain themselves, but said aloud, rolling their eyes with desire:
"How handsome the creature is! Good heavens, how handsome he is!"

He was really handsome, and nobody could deny it, and even too handsome,
with a regular beauty which almost palled on people. He had large,
almond-shaped, gentle eyes, a Grecian nose, a bow-shaped mouth, hidden
by a heavy moustache, and long, black, curly hair; in short, a head fit
to be put into a hair-dresser's window, or, better still