Ninette began to consider how
we were to spend it.
'Think of it, Anton, a whole gold _louis_. A _louis_,' said Ninette,
counting laboriously, 'is twenty francs, a franc is twenty sous, Anton; how
many sous are there in a louis? More than an hundred?'
But this piece of arithmetic was beyond me; I shook my head dubiously.
'What shall we buy first, Anton?' said Ninette, with sparkling eyes. 'You
shall have new things, Anton, a pair of new shoes and an hat; and I--'
But I had other things than clothes in my mind's eye; I interrupted her.
'Ninette, dear little Ninette,' I said coaxingly, 'remember the fiddle.'
Ninette's face fell, but she was a tender little thing, and she showed no
hesitation.
'Certainly, Anton,' she said, but with less enthusiasm, 'we will get it
to-morrow--one of the fiddles you showed me in M. Boudinot's shop on the
Quai. Do you think the ten-franc one will do, or the light one for fifteen
francs?'
'Oh, the light one, dear Ninette,' I said; 'it is worth more than the extra
money. Besides, we shall soon earn it back now. Why if you could earn
such a lot as you have with your old organ, when you only have to turn
an handle, think what a lot I shall make, fiddling.
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