Page:The fortunes of Fifi (IA fortunesoffifi00seawiala).pdf/159

 *umphant. She felt that a long step had been taken toward getting rid of Louis Bourcet. And, after all, it was just as easy to spend five thousand francs as five, if one has the money. She had spent infinitely more time and trouble over her thirty-franc cloak than over all her extraordinary purchases of the last hour.

"The gowns are frightful enough, as well as the bills," she thought to herself, walking away from the shop, "and the bed is really a crushing revelation—but it is not enough—it is not enough."

Then an inspiration came to her which brought her to a standstill.

"I must go to a monkey shop and buy a monkey—but—but I am afraid of monkeys. However—"—here Fifi felt an expansion of the soul—"when one loves, as I love Cartouche, one must be prepared for sacrifices. So I shall sacrifice myself. I shall buy a monkey."

But it is easier to say one will buy a monkey than to buy one. Fifi walked on, pondering how to make this sublime sacrifice to her affections.

The sense of freedom, the exhilaration of the spring day, made themselves felt in her blood. And then, for the first time, she also felt the berserker