I paid her for the programs and tipped her.
She turned us over to a stout brunette lady who was cultivating a
neat and flossy pair of muttonchops. This person escorted us down
the aisle to where our seats were; so I tipped her. Alongside our
seats stood a third member of the sisterhood, chiefly distinguished
from her confreres by the fact that she was turning out something
very fetching in the way of a brown vandyke; and after we were
seated she continued to stand there, holding forth her hand toward
me, palm up and fingers extended in the national gesture, and
saying something in her native tongue very rapidly. Incidentally
she was blocking the path of a number of people who had come down
the aisle immediately behind us.
I thought possibly she desired to see our coupons, so I hauled
them out and exhibited them. She shook her head at that and gabbled
faster than ever. It next occurred to me that perhaps she wanted
to furnish us with programs and was asking in advance for the money
with which to pay for them. I explained to her that I already
secured programs from her friend with the mustache. I did this
mainly in English, but partly in French--at least I employed the
correct French word for program, which is programme. To prove my
case I pulled the two programs from my pocket and showed them to
her. She continued to shake her head with great emphasis, babbling
on at an increased speed.
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