it fascinated and at the same time fatigued my eyes.
"The name of my parrot? Monsieur De Kock, he know that well. It is
Felicite--you catch--Fe-li-ci-te. It was the name of my wife."
Then his wife was dead. De Kock must have made a mistake.
"It is an unusual name for a bird, is not it?" said I.
"Monsieur is right. Not often--not often--you meet with a bird that
name. My first wife--my _first_ wife, gentlemen, she was English.
_You_ are English--ah. Yes. So was she. The English are like this."
Giuseppe took a bottle out of the cruet-stand and set it on the
table in front of him. He went on, "When an Englishman an
Englishwoman argue, they say"--here he took the bottle up very
slowly and gingerly and altered his voice to a mincing and
conventional tone--"Is it oil or is it vinegare? Did you not say
that it was vinegare? I thought that it was oil Oh! Now I see that
it is vinegare."
"Bravo!" exclaimed De Kock. "And so you did not get on with the
Englishwoman then I suppose, Giuseppe, and took Madame the next time?"
We were both laughing heartily at the man's mimicry when once again
the parrot shrieked. "But for goodness sake don't say I told you!"
Giuseppe walked off to speak to it and my friend and I were left
alone.
"Was Felcite the name of his first or second wife!" I asked.
"Of his second, of course. Didn't you hear him say the first was an
Englishwoman? The second is a tall, rather good-looking pale
Frenchwoman. You may see her to-night, and on the other hand you may
not, she doesn't often appear in here. I wish she did, I am rather
fond of her myself, which is more than her husband is. It's pretty
well known that Mr. and Mrs. Joseph do _not_ get on comfortably. In
fact, he hates her, or rather ignores her, while she doats upon him
and is tremendously jealous of the parrot"
"What, that green thing?"
"Well, its a lovely parrot, you must know, and the moment it came
into his possession--he has had it about three years--he seemed to
transfer whatever affection he had for his wife to that creature,
with a great deal beside. Why, he hugs it, and kisses it, and mows
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