she called out to a man standing in the doorway of a shop, who was measuring the boy up and down with a look of good-natured astonishment.
“Mon Dieu!” the man cried. “Qu’il est grand! Il mange beaucoup de soupe!”
At length they stopped before a small millinery shop, where the old woman was having a hat made, and went in. A small bell tinkled thinly as they entered, and the milliner and her assistant came out from behind some curtains to greet them. The milliner was a competent-looking woman of thirty years, dark, with a wide face and a strong, compact, and yet seductive figure. The assistant was younger, taller, and fair in colouring. Both were attractive girls, and both greeted him with smiles and the exclamation of good-natured astonishment that he had heard upon the street. Then, for several minutes, the little shop was gay with the light, rapid French of the three women. All seemed to be talking and laughing at the same time, in excited tones; he saw that the Countess was eagerly publishing his merits to the two girls, he caught the magic phrase The New York Times now and then, the two girls kept glancing at him with smiling faces, and presently the older one, who was the proprietress, walked towards him, measured her height against his shoulder, and then, with a little laugh of astonishment, said:
“Mon Dieu! Qu’il est grand!”
The younger of the two girls, laughing, made a reply in rapid French which he could not follow, and the Countess, with a little chuckle of satisfaction, turned towards him, saying in an explanatory manner:
“They say they need you here, my dear, to get boxes down from the top shelf. It’s too tall for them.”
“Mon Dieu, oui!” the younger, taller girl, who had picked up the hat she had been making for the old woman and was shaping it in her hands, now answered instantly. “He can help Hélène now with the box while you try this on. Hélène,” she called to the other girl, “show Monsieur where the boxes are and have him get one down for you.”
He followed Hélène through the curtains to the rear of the shop, pursued by the laughter and chattering comment of the other two women. Upon a shelf in the rear a number of hat-boxes were stacked up, but when he looked inquiringly at Hélène, she smiled good-naturedly, and kindly said:
“Mais non, monsieur. Nous ne sommes pas sérieuses. Attendez,” and got up briskly on a chair, reaching for a box herself. It was, in fact, almost out
