Banco: The Further Adventures of Papillon Read Free Page B

help me find a job or in case I was in a hole.”
    “Enrique, you don’t need anyone now. Nor does your friend.”
    “Thanks, Maria.”
    We passed a peddler’s stall, full of women’s trinkets--necklaces, bracelets, earrings, brooches, etc.
    I took her over and picked out the best necklace with matching earrings, and three other, smaller sets for her sisters. I gave thirty boilvars for these tinselly little things, paying with a hundred note. Maria put the necklace and the earrings on right away. Her big black eyes sparkled and she thanked me as though the jewels were really valuable.
    When we got back to the house, the three girls shrieked with delight over their presents. I went to my room, leaving them. I had to be alone to think. This family had offered me their hospitality with a splendid generosity; but should I accept it? I had some money, after all, not to mention the diamonds. Reckoning it all together, I could live four months and more without worrying, and I could have Picolino looked after.
    All these girls were lovely, and like tropical flowers they were surely all warm, sexy, ready to give themselves only too easily, almost without thinking. I had seen Maria looking at me today almost as if she were in love. Could I resist so much temptation? It would be better for me to leave this too welcoming house before my weakness brought trouble and suffering. I was thirtynine, although I looked younger, and Maria was not quite eighteen, her sisters younger still. I ought to go, I thought. The best thing would be to leave Picolino in their care, paying for his board, of course.
    “Señor José, I’d like to talk to you alone. Shall we go and have a rum at the café in the square?”
    “All right. But don’t call me señor. You call me José and I’ll call you Enrique. Let’s go. Maria, we’re going out to the square for a minute.”
    “Enrique, change your shirt,” Maria said. “The one you’ve got on is dirty.”
    I went and changed in the bedroom. Before we left, Maria said, “Don’t stay long, Enrique; and above all, don’t drink too much!” And before I had time to step back she kissed me on the cheek.
    Her father burst out laughing. “That Maria,” he said, “she’s in love with you already.”
    As we walked toward the bar I began, “José, you’re a man, so you will understand that if I lived among your daughters it would be hard for me not to fall in love with one of them. But I’m twice as old as the eldest, and I’m legally married in France. So let’s go and have a drink or two together, and then you take me to some cheap little boardinghouse. I can pay.”
    “Frenchman, you’re a real man,” José said, looking me straight in the eye. “Let me shake your hand like a brother for what you’ve just said to a poor guy like me. In this country, you see, almost nobody’s married legally. You like one another, you make love, and if there’s a child, you set up house together. You join up as easily as you leave one another. It’s very hot here, and on account of the heat the women are very full-blooded. They mature early. Maria’s an exception; she’s never had an affair although she’s nearly eighteen. I think your country’s morality is better than ours, because here many women have children without a father, and that’s a very serious problem. But what can you do about it? The good Lord says you must love one another and have children. So although I see you are surrounded by temptation all the time, I ask you again to stay with us. I’m glad to have a man like you in the house.”
    We were in the bar before I answered. A dozen men were sitting around. We drank a few rum-and-Cokes. Several people came up to shake my hand and bid me welcome to their village, and each time José introduced me as a friend who was living at his house. We had a good many drinks. When I asked what they came to, José became almost annoyed; he wanted to pay for every. thing. Still, I finally managed