the innocence and simplicity with which she did it fooled the unfortunate Louis completely.
One thing seemed clear to him: even if the Holy Father were willing to give up so desirable a husband for his young relative, Fifi, herself, would have to be reckoned with; and it all came, Louis thought, with a rainbow of vanity athwart the gloom, of his being so dreadfully handsome, fascinating and virtuous.
To Fifi this was the comedy part of the drama—and she played it for all there was in it.
She reckoned the shopping episode as the first act of the play. That was through, and there must be a second act. Fifi was too much of an artist to repeat herself. She felt she had reached the limit of horrors in shopping, and she still had nearly ninety thousand francs sewed up in her mattress. Some new way must be devised for getting rid of it. She thought of endowing beds in hospitals, of giving dots to young ladies, not so fortunate as herself in having a man like Cartouche, who declined a fortune—and a thousand other schemes; but all involved some vague and mysterious business transactions which frightened Fifi.
