Madame Chrysantheme | Page 9

set up! Really short of marrying a china ornament, I
should find it difficult to choose better.
At this moment enters M. Kangourou, clad in a suit of gray tweed,
which might have come from La Belle Jardiniere or the Pont Neuf,
with a pot hat and white thread gloves. His countenance is at once
foolish and cunning; he has hardly a nose, hardly any eyes. He makes a
real Japanese salutation: an abrupt dip, the hands placed flat on the
knees, the body making a right angle to the legs, as if the fellow were
breaking in two; a little snake-like hissing (produced by sucking the
saliva between the teeth, and which is the expression nec plus ultra of
obsequious politeness in this country). "You speak French, M.
Kangourou?"
" sir" (renewed bows).
He makes one for each word I utter, as if he were a mechanical toy
pulled by a string; when he is seated before me on the ground, he limits
himself to a duck of the head--always accompanied by the same hissing
noise of the saliva.
"A cup of tea, M. Kangourou?"
Fresh salute and an extra affected gesticulation with the hands, as if to
say, "I should hardly dare. It is too great a condescension on your part.
However, anything to oblige you."

* * * * *
He guesses at the first words what I require from him.
"Of course," he replies, "we will see about it at once; in a week's time,
as it happens, a family from Simonosaki, in which there are two
charming daughters, will be here."
"What! in a week! You don't know me, M. Kangourou! No, no, either
now, to-morrow, or not at all."
Again a hissing bow, and Kangourou-San catching my agitation,
begins to pass in feverish review, all the young persons at his disposal
in Nagasaki.
"Let us see--there was Mdlle. OEillet. What a pity that I had not spoken
a few days sooner! So pretty! So clever at playing the guitar. It is an
irreparable misfortune; she was engaged only yesterday by a Russian
officer."
"Ah! Mdlle. Abricot!--Would she suit me, Mdlle. Abricot? She is the
daughter of a wealthy China merchant in the Decima Bazaar, a person
of the highest merit; but she would be very dear: her parents, who think
a great deal of her, will not let her go under a hundred yen[A] a month.
She is very accomplished, thoroughly understands commercial writings,
and has at her finger ends more than two thousand characters of
learned writing. In a poetical competition she gained the first prize
with a sonnet composed in praise of 'the blossoms of the black-thorn
hedges seen in the dew of early morning.' Only, she is not very pretty:
one of her eyes is smaller than the other, and she has a hole in her
cheek, resulting from an illness of her childhood."
[Footnote A: A yen is equal to four shillings.]
"Oh no! on no account that one! Let us seek amongst a less
distinguished class of young persons, but without scars. And how about
those on the other side of the screen, in those fine gold-embroidered
dresses? For instance, the dancer with the specter mask, M.

Kangourou? or again she who sings in so dulcet a strain and has such
a charming nape to her neck?"
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, sir, no! Those are only Guéchas,[B] sir--Guéchas!"
[Footnote B: Guéchas are professional dancers and singers trained at
the Yeddo Conservatory.]
"Well, but why not a Guécha? What odds can it be to me, whether they
are Guéchas or not?" Later on, 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 Mdlle. Jasmin.
Heavens! how was it he did not think 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 dresses 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 Mdlle. Jasmin then,--and now we must part; time
presses. M. Kangourou will come on board to-morrow to communicate
to