He pulled her watch out of his waistcoat-pocket and reverently kissed it, exclaiming: «Ah! c’était un ange! un ange du Paradis! when I tell you I lived with them for five years! Oh! her kindness, Dio, dio Maria! It was ‹Gecko this!’ and ‹Gecko that!’ and ‹Poor Gecko, your toothache, how it worries me!’ and ‹Gecko, how tired and pale you look—you distress me so, looking like that! Shall I mix you a maitrank?’ And ‹Gecko, you love artichokes à la Barigoule; they remind you of Paris—I have heard you say so. Well, I have found out where to get artichokes, and I know how to do them à la Barigoule, and you shall have them for dinner to-day and to-morrow and all the week after!’ and we did!
«Ach! dear kind one—what did I really care for artichokes à la Barigoule?...
«And it was always like that
