“We have left our little pond, quack! quack! to make the acquaintance of the little spit, qu-ack! qu-ack!”

The unfortunate creatures turned their necks away, to avoid his caresses, and made desperate efforts to get out of their wicker prison, and then, suddenly, all at once, uttered the most lamentable quacks of distress.  The women exploded with laughter.  They leaned forward and pushed each other, so as to see better; they were very much interested in the ducks, and the gentleman redoubled his airs, his wits, and his teasing.

Rosa joined in, and leaning over her neighbor’s legs, she kissed the three animals on the head, and immediately all the girls wanted to kiss them in turn, and the gentleman took them onto his knees, made them jump up and down and pinched them.  The two peasants, who were even in greater consternation than their poultry, rolled their eyes as if they were possessed, without venturing to move, and their old wrinkled faces had not a smile nor a movement.

Then the gentleman, who was a commercial traveler, offered the ladies braces by way of a joke, and taking up one of his packages, he opened it.  It was a trick, for the parcel contained garters.  There were blue silk, pink silk, red silk, violet silk, mauve silk garters, and the buckles were made of two gilt metal Cupids, embracing each other.  The girls uttered exclamations of delight and looked at them with that gravity which is natural to a woman when she is hankering after a bargain.  They consulted one another by their looks or in a whisper, and replied in the same manner, and Madame was longingly handling a pair of orange garters that were broader and more imposing looking than the rest; really fit for the mistress of such an establishment.

The gentleman waited, for he was nourishing an idea.

“Come, my kittens,” he said, “you must try them on.”

There was a torrent of exclamations, and they squeezed their petticoats between their legs, as if they thought he was going to ravish them, but he quietly waited his time, and said:  “Well, if you will not, I shall pack them up again.”

And he added cunningly:  “I offer any pair they like, to those who will try them on.”

But they would not, and sat up very straight, and looked dignified.

But the two pumps looked so distressed that he renewed the offer to them, and Flora especially visibly hesitated, and he possessed her:  “Come, my dear, a little courage!  Just look at that lilac pair; it will suit your dress admirably ...”

That decided her, and pulling up her dress she showed a thick leg fit for a milk-maid, in a badly-fitting, coarse stocking.  The commercial traveler stooped down and fastened the garter below the knee first of all and then above it; and he tickled the girl gently, which made her scream and jump.  When he had done, he gave her the lilac pair, and asked:  “Who next?”

“I!  I!” they all shouted at once, and he began on Rosa the Jade, who uncovered a shapeless, round thing without any ankle, a regular “sausage of a leg,” as Raphaele used to say.