Paris: The Novel

small clerks and shopkeepers, others manual working folk like himself and Édith.
    Édith was dressed in a blue-and-white dress which she had enhanced with a small hat with a ribbon around the crown. She carried a parasol. Thomas guessed that the hat and parasol might be discards from Mademoiselle Hortense. The effect was to suggest that Édith might belong to the class above her own. But he had often noticed that women tended to dress up more finely than their men. His own short jacket was clean enough, but his boots had never been shiny even before they became caked with dust. It suddenly occurred to him to wonder how his little brother would have dressed for a day like this.
    Édith liked the place. There was a little Oriental temple, and a number of curious animals. But it was also clear that a large area was being prepared for a new display, and they asked a uniformed warden what this was going to be.
    “Ah,” he said, with a twirl of his mustache, “that’s for the exhibition, the World’s Fair next year. Biggest show we’ve ever done. An entire village.”
    “What sort of village?” Édith wanted to know.
    “An African village. Native huts. The lot.”
    “Any real natives?” Thomas inquired.
    “But of course. They’re importing four hundred Negroes. At the last big exhibition, back in ’77,” he went on enthusiastically, “we had Nubians and Inuit Indians on display.”
    “Like a zoo?” asked Édith.
    “But of course like a zoo. A human zoo. And do you know, it brought in a million visitors. Think of that. A million!” Thomas had heard about the human zoos, as these exhibitions were called, that were to be found in several countries. But the scale of this one was certainly impressive.
    “It will rival Buffalo Bill and his Red Indians,” the warden proudly declared.
    As they left the zoo and started walking through the Bois, Édith turned to Thomas.
    “Will you take me to watch Buffalo Bill when he comes?”
    “Of course,” said Thomas.
    He took note of the signal. When he’d waited outside the lycée the week after Bastille Day, he hadn’t been sure what to expect. She’d been cautious, and said she couldn’t meet him until early August, but she hadn’t said no. And now, after only an hour in his company, she’d just asked him to take her to a show the following summer.
    A change of heart? Had Monsieur Ney indicated his approval? Or had Édith missed him? Well, he thought, he’d just have to wait and see. For the moment, he was glad.
    He wondered if he dared put his arm around her. He glanced at her pretty hat and parasol and decided he’d better not. Not yet, anyway.
    They came to a noble avenue. This, clearly, was where the fashionable ladies came to be seen in their fine carriages, while rich men and officers rode beside them. He wondered what it must be like to have no work to do, and realized that he had no idea.
    But he knew how to treat a girl on a summer Sunday afternoon, and soon they reached the upper lake.
    Fringed with trees, which gave it a rustic air, the lake was quite large. In the middle of its waters there was an island containing a café and restaurant in the form of a Swiss cottage. The overall effect was charming and romantic.
    Thomas led Édith straight to the boatyard. Within minutes, they were out on the water with Édith sitting very prettily in the stern, under her parasol, and Thomas manfully plying the oars.
    He’d been in a boat only once or twice in his life, but he took care and splashed Édith only a couple of times, which made her laugh. Since the day was hot, he took off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves, and felt more comfortable like that.
    There were plenty of other boats out on the water. Most of the oarsmenwere gentlemen, some of whom had taken off their jackets just as he had. But to his surprise, several boats were being rowed by well-dressed women, who seemed to think it a fine joke to compete with the men.
    After rowing about the lake for nearly half an hour, he moored the boat at the island, and treated Édith to an ice in the Swiss cottage.
    When they came back to the boat again, Édith said she wanted to row.
    “Have you done it before?” he asked.
    “I’ve been watching you,” she said.
    So he helped her into the boat, and stepped in after her, but the boat moved in the water, and Édith lost her balance, and Thomas caught her as she fell, which was just as well because she might have cracked her head on the wooden