Page:The fortunes of Fifi (IA fortunesoffifi00seawiala).pdf/82

 weeping on Cartouche's shoulder, and even kicked Toto when that sympathetic dog would have joined his grief to hers, for Toto knew well enough that something was to pay, whether it was the devil or not, he could not tell, but rather suspected it was the devil.

Cartouche tried to comfort Fifi—usually not a difficult problem when one has to be reconciled to a fortune—but there is always something staggering in contemplating another state of existence. Neither Cartouche nor Fifi could at once become calm, and Fifi, too, felt in some singular, but acute manner, that the hundred thousand francs stood between her and Cartouche.

"Now, mind, Fifi," Cartouche said, "not a word of this to the people in the theater. Wait until the money is actually in your hands."

"In my hands," cried Fifi, tearfully and indignantly, "in your hands, you mean, you cruel Cartouche!"

Fifi had called Cartouche cruel a dozen times since she had drawn the prize, but Cartouche did not mind it. He would have liked to stay with her but there were a dozen things awaiting him at the theater, and Cartouche was not the man to neglect