Jonah and Co Part 46

"We must look sharp," I insisted. "She's half across the fairway. If anybody with anything broader than a mule feels they can't wait, there'll be murder done."

We came to the shop, panting....

The place was just as we had left it, and--there was no one there.

I looked round impatiently.

"What on earth," I began, "is the good of a----"

As I spoke, the curtain in the corner was pushed to one side, and a French girl entered the room.

Her manner was most curious.

For a moment she hesitated, as though she would turn and fly. Then, with her eyes upon Adele, she moved slowly forward. She seemed to be making an effort to come and serve us. That she was most apprehensive was perfectly plain....

Half-way between curtain and table she stopped. Then she put a hand to her throat.

"_Madame_ desires something?"

"Some scent, please," said Adele rea.s.suringly.

Her cheerful tone appeared to encourage the girl. And when my wife pointed to the green phial and asked to be sprayed with its contents, I could have sworn her att.i.tude was that of relief.

In a flash she had produced a small square of linen. This she handed to Adele.

"Smell, _Madame_. See, it is scentless. _Pardon_." She sprayed it with scent. "_Voila_. That is the 'Black Lily.'"

Adele pa.s.sed it to me. The scent was exquisite.

"It's delicious," said Adele.

"Yes, _Madame_, it is good. Will _Madame_ sample the others?"

"If you please."

Fresh squares of linen were produced, offered for inspection, and sprayed....

Each perfume seemed more ravishing than its predecessor. To test the worth of this impression, we reverted to the 'Black Lily.' One breath of this satisfied us that it was the best of the lot. To be quite sure, we smelt the 'Blue Rose,' and were instantly convinced of its superiority to its fellows. A return to the 'Grey Jasmine' persuaded us that there was only one scent in the shop. It was, indeed, impossible to award the palm. Each perfume had some irresistible virtue which the others lacked.

When, at last, Adele implored me to help her to a decision, I spoke to the point.

"There's only one thing to do. We can't wait now, so have a big bottle of each. Then you and Jill and Daphne can fight it out at home."

Adele asked the price of the scents.

"They are all the same price, _Madame_. The large bottle, one hundred _pesetas_--the others, seventy, fifty, and thirty, according to size."

"Very well. I'll take a large bottle of each."

"Thank you, _Madame_."

A prolonged and vicious croak from the end of the street argued that Berry's patience was wearing thin, but to have asked the girl to make haste would have been supererogatory.

In a trice three phials had been taken down from their shelves, and three stout silk-lined cases, of the pattern of safety-match boxes, had been produced. The phial went into its tray, the tray into its sheath, the case complete into a sheet of rough grey paper, and the whole was girt with cord in next to no time.

As the last knot was being tied Adele touched me upon the arm.

"I almost forgot," she said. Then she turned to the girl. "I have been told to ask for your 'Red Violets.'"

The scissors the girl was using fell to the floor. As she recovered them--

"Certainly, _Madame_," she whispered, laying a trembling hand upon the curtain behind.

She disappeared, to reappear almost immediately with a package precisely similar to those she had just made up. She placed it with the others.

"Oh," said Adele, "but you haven't----"

A perfect hurricane of croaks, mingled with cries of anger, interrupted her.

"Never mind," I cried, gathering up the parcels. "How much is it now?

Four hundred, I suppose."

As I was counting the notes, a yell of anguish in Berry's unmistakable accents fell upon my ears.

I threw the money upon the table and bolted out of the shop with Adele at my heels....

As we came to the corner, I ran full tilt into--Eulalie. For an instant our eyes met, but she looked away pointedly, slipped to one side, and pa.s.sed on....

Then--

"_Obstaculos_ to you, sir!" roared Berry. "Look at my wing.... Yes, I see the cabriolet. But what of that? It's perfectly happy.... No, it _didn't_ want to get by. And if it had---- Oh, go and push yourself off somewhere." Here he caught sight of me. "See what this greasy pantaloon's done? I told him he hadn't room, but he wouldn't wait.

And now he's shoving it on to that cabriolet.... Oh, why can't I speak Spanish? I'd give him earache."

I thrust our packages into the fold of the hood and ran to examine the wing. Happily the damage was slight. I announced this relievedly.

"I daresay it is," raged Berry, as we resumed our seats. "What I object to is the poisonous hostility of the brute. He blinkin' well meant to do it."

"Dear, dear," said Adele, bubbling. "There must have been some misunderstanding. The Spaniard's courtesy is proverbial."

"Exactly," said I. "The stranger is at first apt to be carried away by the exaggerated politeness of the----"

"You may be," said Berry, "as blasphemous as you like, but, for the love of the home for little children, let's get out of this town."

I let in the clutch....

We were pa.s.sing out of the beautiful armoried gateway, when an approaching peasant signalled to us to stop, and pointed excitedly back the way we had come. The fellow's manner suggested that we had dropped something.

I pulled up the car, opened my door, and jumped out.