Bertha and Felix had been a strange couple. You owe it to pure coincidence that their paths crossed. Although they in common except their huge appetite, absolutely nothing, had the two close friends have become.The Dowry
June 23, 2009 by storybus
his wife's ear:
"What a bother! I won't be able to smoke."
She answered in a low voice
"It annoys me too, but not an account of your cigar."
The whistle blew and the train started. The trip lasted about an hour,
during which time they did not say very much to each other, as the two
old ladies did not go to sleep.
As soon as they were in front of the Saint-Lazare Station, Maitre
Lebrument said to his wife:
"Dearie, let us first go over to the Boulevard and get something to eat;
then we can quietly return and get our trunk and bring it to the hotel."
She immediately assented.
"Oh! yes. Let's eat at the restaurant. Is it far?"
He answered:
"Yes, it's quite a distance, but we will take the omnibus."
She was surprised:
"Why don't we take a cab?"
He began to scold her smilingly:
"Is that the way you save money? A cab for a five minutes' ride at six
cents a minute! You would deprive yourself of nothing."
"That's so," she said, a little embarrassed.
A big omnibus was passing by, drawn by three big horses, which were
trotting along. Lebrument called out:
"Conductor! Conductor!"
The heavy carriage stopped. And the young lawyer, pushing his wife, said
to her quickly:
"Go inside; I'm going up on top, so that I may smoke at least one
cigarette before lunch."
She had no time to answer. The conductor, who had seized her by the arm
to help her up the step, pushed her inside, and she fell into a seat,
bewildered, looking through the back window at the feet of her husband
as he climbed up to the top of the vehicle.
And she sat there motionless, between a fat man who smelled of cheap
tobacco and an old woman who smelled of garlic.
All the other passengers were lined up in silence--a grocer's boy, a
young girl, a soldier, a gentleman with gold-rimmed spectacles and a
big silk hat, two ladies with a self-satisfied and crabbed look, which
seemed to say: "We are riding in this thing, but we don't have to," two
sisters of charity and an undertaker. They looked like a collection of
caricatures.
The jolting of the wagon made them wag their heads and the shaking of
the wheels seemed to stupefy them--they all looked as though they were
asleep.
The young woman remained motionless.
"Why didn't he come inside with me?" she was saying to herself. An
unaccountable sadness seemed to be hanging over her. He really need not
have acted so.
The sisters motioned to the conductor to stop, and they got off one
after the other, leaving in their wake the pungent smell of camphor. The
bus started tip and soon stopped again. And in got a cook, red-faced and
out of breath. She sat down and placed her basket of provisions on her
knees. A strong odor of dish-water filled the vehicle.
"It's further than I imagined," thought Jeanne.
The undertaker went out, and was replaced by a coachman who seemed to
bring the atmosphere of the stable with him. The young girl had
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