But Paul neither saw, looked at, nor smelled anything, for our fellow traveler engrossed all his attention.
When we got to Cannes, as he wished to speak to me he signed to me to get out again, and as soon as I had done so he took me by the arm.
"Do you know, she is really charming. Just look at her eyes; and I never saw anything like her hair."
"Don't excite yourself," I replied, "or else tackle her, if you have any intentions that way. She does not look impregnable, I fancy, although she appears to be a little bit grumpy."
"I don't know what to say, for I am always terribly stupid at first; I can never make advances to a woman in the street. I follow them, go round and round them, and quite closely to them, but I never know what to say at first. I only once tried to enter into conversation with a woman in that way. As I clearly saw that she was waiting for me to make overtures, and as I felt bound to say something, I stammered out, 'I hope you are quite well, madam?' She laughed in my face, and I made my escape."
I promised Paul to do all I could to bring about a conversation, and when we had taken our places again, I politely asked our neighbor:
"Have you any objection to the smell of tobacco, madam?"
So she was Italian! I felt an absurd inclination to laugh. As Paul did not understand a word of that language, I was obliged to act as his interpreter, so I said in Italian:
"I asked you, madam, whether you had any objection to tobacco smoke?"
With an angry look she replied, "_Che mi fa_."[7]
She had neither turned her head nor looked at me, and I really did not know whether to take this "What does it matter to me" for an authorization, a refusal, a real sign of indifference, or for a mere "Leave me alone."
"Madame," I replied, "if you mind the smell of tobacco in the least--"
She again said, "_Mica_,"[8] in a tone of voice which seemed to mean, "I wish to goodness you would leave me alone!" It was, however, a kind of permission, so I said to Paul:
He looked at me in that curious sort of way that people have when they try to understand others who are talking in a strange language before them, and asked me:
"I asked if we might smoke, and she said we might do whatever we liked."