"_Insulting!_ Well, I don"t know. I think it"s the _truth_--"
"Not to be said to me, for all that," said Alvina, quivering with anger.
"Oh!" perked Mr. May, yellow with strange rage. "Oh! I mustn"t say what I think! Oh!"
"Not if you think those things--" said Alvina.
"Oh really! The difficulty is, you see, I"m afraid I _do_ think them--" Alvina watched him with big, heavy eyes.
"Go away," she said. "Go away! I won"t be insulted by you."
"No _indeed!_" cried Mr. May, starting to his feet, his eyes almost bolting from his head. "No _indeed!_ I wouldn"t _think_ of insulting you in the presence of these _two_ young gentlemen."
Ciccio rose slowly, and with a slow, repeated motion of the head, indicated the door.
"Allez!" he said.
"_Certainement!_" cried Mr. May, flying at Ciccio, verbally, like an enraged hen yellow at the gills. "_Certainement!_ Je m"en vais.
Cette compagnie n"est pas de ma choix."
"Allez!" said Ciccio, more loudly.
And Mr. May strutted out of the room like a bird bursting with its own rage. Ciccio stood with his hands on the table, listening. They heard Mr. May slam the front door.
"Gone!" said Geoffrey.
Ciccio smiled sneeringly.
"Voyez, un cochon de lait," said Gigi amply and calmly.
Ciccio sat down in his chair. Geoffrey poured out some beer for him, saying:
"Drink, my Cic", the bubble has burst, prfff!" And Gigi knocked in his own puffed cheek with his fist. "Allaye, my dear, your health!
We are the Tawaras. We are Allaye! We are Pacohuila! We are Walgatchka! Allons! The milk-pig is stewed and eaten. Voila!" He drank, smiling broadly.
"One by one," said Geoffrey, who was a little drunk: "One by one we put them out of the field, they are _hors de combat_. Who remains?
Pacohuila, Walgatchka, Allaye--"
He smiled very broadly. Alvina was sitting sunk in thought and torpor after her sudden anger.
"Allaye, what do you think about? You are the bride of Tawara," said Geoffrey.
Alvina looked at him, smiling rather wanly.
"And who is Tawara?" she asked.
He raised his shoulders and spread his hands and swayed his head from side to side, for all the world like a comic mandarin.
"There!" he cried. "The question! Who is Tawara? Who? Tell me!
Ciccio is he--and I am he--and Max and Louis--" he spread his hand to the distant members of the tribe.
"I can"t be the bride of all four of you," said Alvina, laughing.
"No--no! No--no! Such a thing does not come into my mind. But you are the Bride of Tawara. You dwell in the tent of Pacohuila. And comes the day, should it ever be so, there is no room for you in the tent of Pacohuila, then the lodge of Walgatchka the bear is open for you. Open, yes, wide open--" He spread his arms from his ample chest, at the end of the table. "Open, and when Allaye enters, it is the lodge of Allaye, Walgatchka is the bear that serves Allaye. By the law of the Pale Face, by the law of the Yenghees, by the law of the Fransayes, Walgatchka shall be husband-bear to Allaye, that day she lifts the door-curtain of his tent--"
He rolled his eyes and looked around. Alvina watched him.
"But I might be afraid of a husband-bear," she said.
Geoffrey got on to his feet.
"By the Manitou," he said, "the head of the bear Walgatchka is humble--" here Geoffrey bowed his head--"his teeth are as soft as lilies--" here he opened his mouth and put his finger on his small close teeth--"his hands are as soft as bees that stroke a flower--"
here he spread his hands and went and suddenly flopped on his knees beside Alvina, showing his hands and his teeth still, and rolling his eyes. "Allaye can have no fear at all of the bear Walgatchka,"
he said, looking up at her comically.
Ciccio, who had been watching and slightly grinning, here rose to his feet and took Geoffrey by the shoulder, pulling him up.
"Basta!" he said. "Tu es saoul. You are drunk, my Gigi. Get up. How are you going to ride to Mansfield, hein?--great beast."
"Ciccio," said Geoffrey solemnly. "I love thee, I love thee as a brother, and also more. I love thee as a brother, my Ciccio, as thou knowest. But--" and he puffed fiercely--"I am the slave of Allaye, I am the tame bear of Allaye."
"Get up," said Ciccio, "get up! Per bacco! She doesn"t want a tame bear." He smiled down on his friend.
Geoffrey rose to his feet and flung his arms round Ciccio.
"Cic"," he besought him. "Cic"--I love thee as a brother. But let me be the tame bear of Allaye, let me be the gentle bear of Allaye."
"All right," said Ciccio. "Thou art the tame bear of Allaye."
Geoffrey strained Ciccio to his breast.
"Thank you! Thank you! Salute me, my own friend."
And Ciccio kissed him on either cheek. Whereupon Geoffrey immediately flopped on his knees again before Alvina, and presented her his broad, rich-coloured cheek.
"Salute your bear, Allaye," he cried. "Salute your slave, the tame bear Walgatchka, who is a wild bear for all except Allaye and his brother Pacohuila the Puma." Geoffrey growled realistically as a wild bear as he kneeled before Alvina, presenting his cheek.
Alvina looked at Ciccio, who stood above, watching. Then she lightly kissed him on the cheek, and said:
"Won"t you go to bed and sleep?"
Geoffrey staggered to his feet, shaking his head.
"No--no--" he said. "No--no! Walgatchka must travel to the tent of Kishwegin, to the Camp of the Tawaras."
"Not tonight, _mon brave_," said Ciccio. "Tonight we stay here, hein. Why separate, hein?--frere?"
Geoffrey again clasped Ciccio in his arms.