Well, let us fix upon Mademoiselle Jasmin, then—­and now we must part; time presses.  M. Kangourou will come on board to-morrow to communicate to me the result of his first proceedings and to arrange with me for the interview.  For the present he refuses to accept any remuneration; but I am to give him my washing, and to procure him the custom of my brother officers of the ‘Triomphante.’  It is all settled.  Profound bows—­they put on my boots again at the door.  My djin, profiting by the interpreter kind fortune has placed in his way, begs to be recommended to me for future custom; his stand is on the quay; his number is 415, inscribed in French characters on the lantern of his vehicle (we have a number 415 on board, one Le Goelec, gunner, who serves the left of one of my guns; happy thought!  I shall remember this); his price is sixpence the journey, or five-pence an hour, for his customers.  Capital! he shall have my custom, that is promised.  And now, let us be off.  The waiting-maids, who have escorted me to the door, fall on all fours as a final salute, and remain prostrate on the threshold as long as I am still in sight down the dark pathway, where the rain trickles off the great overarching bracken upon my head.

CHAPTER IV

CHOOSING A BRIDE

Three days have passed.  Night is closing, in an apartment which has been mine since yesterday.  Yves and I, on the first floor, move restlessly over the white mats, striding to and fro in the great bare room, of which the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we are both rather irritated by prolonged expectation.  Yves, whose impatience shows itself more freely, from time to time looks out of the window.  As for myself, a chill suddenly seizes me, at the idea that I have chosen to inhabit this lonely house, lost in the midst of the suburb of a totally strange town, perched high on the mountain and almost opening upon the woods.

What wild notion could have taken possession of me, to settle myself in surroundings so foreign and unknown, breathing of isolation and sadness?  The waiting unnerves me, and I beguile the time by examining all the little details of the building.  The woodwork of the ceiling is complicated and ingenious.  On the partitions of white paper which form the walls, are scattered tiny, microscopic, blue-feathered tortoises.

“They are late,” said Yves, who is still looking out into the street.

As to being late, that they certainly are, by a good hour already, and night is falling, and the boat which should take us back to dine on board will be gone.  Probably we shall have to sup Japanese fashion tonight, heaven only knows where.  The people of this country have no sense of punctuality, or of the value of time.