Vivi grinned at him from under her straggling black locks as she poured some of the sweet grey mixture into one of the cups. She liked to have adventures so that she could tell Rosanne about them at night. She meant to stop at a little shop she knew on the rue Saint Antoine and buy a bit of sweet cake as a treat for Rosanne's supper. Now that she had a few pennies to spend she liked to buy some little thing to cheer her friend, for whom the days dragged slowly.
"Let me go through the gates, Georges Fardou, just for fun," she pleaded.
The soldier in charge gave a good-natured laugh and looked down at her.
"That's so, you're poor old one-legged Ranboeau's brat. That was a bad deal your father got when the lumber fell. Let you through the gates, is it? What would you do on the other side?" he asked.
"Pick some flowers and come right back," answered Vivi, hitching up the tray which was held about her neck by a leather strap.
The soldier in charge laughed and turned to another.
"She wants to pick some flowers on the other side of the gates. Well, go through and see how many you'll find!" He held open the gate far enough for Vivi to step through, and they all laughed at her as she looked about curiously.
"It's a great sight, isn't it? No one was curious until they had to stay this side, but since the gates have been locked you'd think they thought the fields of paradise were just near by," laughed Georges Fardou.
There were no flowers, only a long stretch of road, the vanishing bulk of a market cart in the distance, and the vivid spring sky above. Vivi looked about her and then, putting her tray down, began to dance and sing:
"Dansons la Carmagnole, Vive le son du canon!"
The soldiers looked on, calling out approvingly:
"That's good. She might be a sans-culotte herself! Give us the 'Ça Ira,' too!"
Vivi danced and sang with all her might, enjoying the attention she got very much. When Fardou called her, she picked up her tray and came inside the gates, making a bow to the guard, who bowed mockingly in return.
"Thank you, citizeness, for the entertainment. We shall see you one day at the Comédie Française, I daresay," he remarked.
"Thank you, Georges Fardou, for letting me outside the gates. It is not so nice there as I thought." She swung her leather strap over her shoulder and went on crying her wares: "Licorice water, who wants licorice water!"