Read Online The Adventures of Hiram Holliday by Paul Gallico - Free Book Online

elephants, and most of the performers were there, the clowns and the acrobats and the jugglers, and Lisette, all holding court for their admirers and worshippers. Some of the clowns were sipping drinks at the bar with civilians, and others were leaning over talking to little children, and there was the warm, friendly hum of conversation and the smell of cigarette smoke and animals and grease paint and perfume, and Hiram Holliday suddenly felt happier than he had at any time since he had come to Paris.
    He went over and stroked the nose of the white horse Capitan because he was hoping desperately to be able to talk to Lisette, the girl looked so fresh and charming. She had chestnut hair and fine dark eyes framed in a broad face with high cheekbones, and she had a large, frank, red splash of a mouth and fine white teeth. It was Lisette who broke the ice. She said suddenly: 'Capitan, shake hands. Give the hand to the American gentleman. So. Quick!'
    The horse raised his right foreleg and placed the hoof in Hiram's hand and arched his neck so disa rmingly, that Hiram suddenly leaned over and kissed its velvet nose, and the girl laughed in confusion almost as though he had kissed her and said: 'Oh ... but you Americans are always so impulsive.*
    'Gee,' said Hiram, 'you speak English. You ... you are simply charming . Would ... would you have a drink with me, Lisette?'
    'I have been to England, often,' the girl said, and then bowed her head and added :' Thank you. I will have a lemonade please, and Capitan would like very much a piece of sugar.'
    They went over and sat at the bar, and made friends and talked about the show, and Hiram noted and mentioned that the Cossacks did not seem to be in evidence. The girl tossed
    her dark head and said: 'OhThose Russians. They keep
    by themselves. They are not like us. I love people.'
    'Look,' said Hiram Holliday.... 'Maybe this is all out of order. I mean I'm an American and don't know what .your customs are. But would you come out with me a little after the show ? You see, I am a stranger and lonely. And I do love your business very much....'
    The girl was silent for a moment and then studied him. She saw a man, no longer a youth, with unruly sandy hair and a round, innocent face. He had seemed to be a little stout, and yet she had noticed how well he moved when he had approached the horse. His steel-rimmed spectacles gave him almost an owlish air, but there was something in the large, bright blue eyes behind the glasses that made her wonder. The eyes did not belong with the face, the body or the manner. They were the eyes of men who did things. And there was an expression in them that made her want to smile warmly. This funny, innocent American who was so obviously charmed with her. She laughed engagingly and said: 'After the performance I am always very hungry. I have the enormous appetite. You may have permission to take me to supper. I shall meet you right here.'
    Thus they met, after the performance was concluded. She came dressed in a skirt and sweater and a camel's-hair polo coat and no hat, but a dark red ribbon in her hair. And arm-in-arm they walked away from the bright, garish lights and blatant, tinny noises of the Boulevard Rochechouart, up the hill of the Mount of Martyrs through crooked streets, past crooked houses, and the dark pile of the Eglise du Sacre Coeur to a tiny restaurant in the rue Nicolet where the tablecloths of red and white checkered stuff were clean and fresh. The chef came forth from the kitchen to be introduced, and because he too seemed to have been caught by something in the eyes of the plain man with the little circus queen, he announced that he, Manuel, would with his own hands prepare them an onion soup to be followed by an omelette aux fines herbe , after which they should have les rognons, kidneys with the sauce of his own soul and being.
    While they waited they went to the door and looked at the wonderful, crouching shape of Paris that lay at their