a attentively, who, on her part, had plenty of
time to look closely at him.

He was an old man of about sixty-five, and his rags and the wallet over
his shoulder denoted a beggar, but Sonia immediately noticed that there
was a certain amount of affectation in his wretchedness. His hair and
beard were not shaggy and ragged, like such men usually wear them, and
evidently he had his hair cut occasionally, and he had a fine, and even
_distinguished_ face, as Sonia said to herself. But she did not pay much
attention to that, as for some time she had noticed that old men at the
seaside nearly all looked like gentlemen.

When he got to the foot of the terrace, the beggar stopped, and wagged
his head and said: "Pretty! The little woman is very pretty!" But he did
not obey Sonia's order, who repeated it, almost angrily this time,
beating a violent tattoo on the stone-work. "The song, the whole song!"

He did not seem to hear, but stood there gaping, with a vacant smile on
his face, and as his head was rather inclined towards his left shoulder,
a thin stream of saliva trickled from his lips onto his beard, and his
looks became more and more ardent. "How stupid I am!" Sonia suddenly
thought. "Of course he is waiting for something." She felt in her
pocket, in which she always carried some gold by way of half-pence, took
out a twenty-franc piece and threw it down to the old man. He, however,
did not take any notice of it, but continued looking at her
ecstatically, and was only roused from his state of bliss by receiving a
handful of gravel which she threw at him, right in his face.

"Do sing!" she exclaimed. "You must; I will have it; I have paid you."
And then, still smiling, he picked up the napoleon and threw it back
onto the terrace, and then he said proudly, though in a very gentle
voice: "I do not ask for charity, little lady; but if it gives you
pleasure, I will sing you the whole song, the whole of it, as often as
you please." And he began the song again, in his tremulous voice, which
was more tremulous than it had been before, as if he were much touched.

Sonia was overcome, and without knowing was moved into tears; delighted
because the man had spoken to her so familiarly, and rather ashamed at
having treated him as a beggar; and now her whole being was carried away
by the slow rhythm of the melody, which related an old love story, and
when he had done he again looked at her with a smile, and as she was
crying, he said