He does not, at first, understand my drift; then when he gathers my meaning, he shakes his head almost in a joking way, and says: 

“No, Monsieur, no!  Those are only geishas,—­[Geishas are professional dancers and singers trained at the Yeddo Conservatory.] —­Monsieur—­geishas!”

“Well, but why not a geisha?  What difference can it make to me whether they are geishas or not?” Later, no doubt, when I understand Japanese affairs better, I shall appreciate myself the enormity of my proposal:  one would really suppose I had talked of marrying the devil.

At this point M. Kangourou suddenly calls to mind one Mademoiselle Jasmin.  Heavens! how was it he had not thought of her at once?  She is absolutely and exactly what I want; he will go to-morrow, or this very evening, to make the necessary overtures to the parents of this young person, who live a long way off, on the opposite hill, in the suburb of Diou-djen-dji.  She is a very pretty girl of about fifteen.  She can probably be engaged for about eighteen or twenty dollars a month, on condition of presenting her with a few costumes of the best fashion, and of lodging her in a pleasant and well-situated house—­all of which a man of gallantry like myself could not fail to do.

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.