their white or yellow topknots toward the glaring red of his breeches and
the copper buckle of his belt. When he found a bird that could talk he
put questions to it, and if it happened at the time to be disposed to
reply and to hold a conversation with him he would carry away enough
amusement to last him till evening. He also found heaps of amusement in
looking at the monkeys, and could conceive no greater luxury for a rich
man than to own these animals as one owns cats and dogs. This kind of
taste for the exotic he had in his blood, as people have a taste for the
chase, or for medicine, or for the priesthood. He could not help
returning to the quay every time the gates of the barracks opened, drawn
toward it by an irresistible longing.

On one occasion, having stopped almost in ecstasy before an enormous
macaw, which was swelling out its plumes, bending forward and bridling up
again as if making the court curtseys of parrot-land, he saw the door of
a little cafe adjoining the bird dealer's shop open, and a young negress
appeared, wearing on her head a red silk handkerchief. She was sweeping
into the street the corks and sand of the establishment.

Boitelle's attention was soon divided between the bird and the woman, and
he really could not tell which of these two beings he contemplated with
the greater astonishment and delight.

The negress, having swept the rubbish into the street, raised her eyes,
and, in her turn, was dazzled by the soldier's uniform. There she stood
facing him with her broom in her hands as if she were bringing him a
rifle, while the macaw continued bowing. But at the end of a few seconds
the soldier began to feel embarrassed at this attention, and he walked
away quietly so as not to look as if he were beating a retreat.