‘“I prayed to her for money and promised her a candle,” I said. “She answered the prayer–at any rate, the money turned up. I shall have to buy that candle. It’s a nuisance, but it seems to me I must keep my promise.”

‘“But what put Sainte Éloïse into your head?” said Maria.

‘“It was her picture,” I said, and I explained the whole thing. “There she is, you see,” I said, and I pointed to the picture on the wall.

‘Maria looked at the picture, and then to my surprise she burst into shouts of laughter. She laughed more and more, stamping about the room and holding her fat sides as though they would burst. I thought she had gone mad. It was two minutes before she could speak.

‘“Idiot!” she cried at last. “T’es louf! T’es louf! Do you mean to tell me you really knelt down and prayed to that picture? Who told you it was Sainte Éloïse?”

‘“But I made sure it was Sainte Éloïse!” I said.

‘“Imbecile! It isn’t Sainte Éloïse at all. Who do you think it is?”

‘“Who?’ I said.

‘“It is ——, the woman this hotel is called after.”

‘I had been praying to ——, the famous prostitute of the Empire…

‘But, after all, I wasn’t sorry. Maria and I had a good laugh, and then we talked it over, and we made out that I didn’t owe Sainte Éloïse anything. Clearly it wasn’t she who had answered the prayer, and there was no need to buy her a candle. So I had my packet of cigarettes after all.’

Chapter XVI

XVI

TIME WENT ON and the Auberge de Jehan Cottart showed no signs of opening. Boris and I went down there one day during our afternoon interval and found that none of the alterations had been done, except the indecent pictures, and there were three duns instead of two. The patron greeted us with his usual blandness, and the next instant turned to me (his prospective dishwasher) and borrowed five francs. After that I felt certain that the restaurant would never get beyond talk. The patron, however, again named the opening for ‘exactly a fortnight from today’, and introduced us to the woman who was to do the cooking, a Baltic Russian five feet tall and a yard across the hips. She told us that she had been a singer before she came down to cooking, and that she was very artistic and adored English literature, especially La Case de l’Oncle Tom.