Little Poems in Prose

monotonous accompaniment to her vague rev- eries, and while the iron pot, where a dish of crabs with rice and saffron is cooking, sends its exciting perfume from the bottom of the court- yard. Perhaps she has a tryst with some young officer, who, on distant shores, has heard his comrades speak of the famous Dorothy; no doubt the simple-minded girl will beg him to describe the Opera ball to her, and ask him if one may go there bare-foot, as one may on the Sunday dances, when the old Kaffir women themselves get drunk and furious with joy, And then again she will ask if the fair ladies of Paris are all more beautiful than she. Dorothy is admired and petted by everyone, and she would be perfectly happy if she were not obliged to put aside copper after copper so as to buy the freedom of her little sister; who has all of eleven years and who is already a woman, and so beautiful. She will succeed, no doubt, this good Dorothy; the child’s master is so miserly, too miserly to understand any other beauty than that of gold.