Returning, she did not trouble herself at all about me, and immediately went quietly to sleep again with her head resting on her right arm.
As for me, I began to meditate on human weakness and fatuity, and then I went to sleep also.
She got up early, like a woman who is used to work in the morning. She woke me up by doing so, and I watched her through my half-closed eyelids.
She came and went without hurrying herself, as if she were astonished at having nothing to do. At length she went to the toilet-table, and in a moment she emptied all the scent that remained in my bottles. She certainly also used some water, but very little.
When she was quite dressed, she sat down on her box again, and holding one knee between her hands, she seemed to be thinking.
At that moment I first pretended to notice her, and said:
Without seeming in at all a better temper than the previous night, she murmured, "Good morning."
When I asked her whether she slept well, she nodded _Yes_, and jumping out of bed, I went and kissed her.
She turned her face towards me like a child who is being kissed against its will; but I took her tenderly in my arms, and gently put my lips on her large eyes, which she closed with evident distaste under my kisses on her fresh cheeks and full lips which she turned away.
"You don't seem to like being kissed," I said to her.
I sat down on the trunk by her side, and, passing my arm through hers, I said: "_Mica! mica! mica_! in reply to everything. I shall call you Mademoiselle _Mica_, I think."
For the first time I fancied that I saw the shadow of a smile on her lips, but it passed by so quickly that I may have been mistaken.
"But if you never say anything but _Mica_ I shall not know what to do to try to please you. Let us see; what shall we do to-day?"
She hesitated a moment as if some fancy had flitted through her head, and then she said carelessly: "It is all the same to me; whatever you like."
"Very well, Mademoiselle _Mica_, we will have a carriage and go for a drive."
Paul was waiting for us in the dining-room, looking as bored as third parties generally do in love affairs. I assumed a delighted air, and shook hands with him with triumphant energy.
"What are you thinking of doing?" he asked.