"Here taste that--some of the richest grape-blood of Rheingau;"
and he handed Hans a small flask, which the sober barber respectfully
declined. "Ha! ha! and yet you hope to thrive with the women," said the
stranger. "No wonder that Agnes treats you as she does. But drink, man!
drink!"
The stranger took a pipe, and coolly seated himself again in his chair,
hung one leg over the back of another, and striking his finger briskly
down his nose, elicited a flame that ignited his tobacco, and then he
puffed, and puffed, till every moth in the shop coughed aloud. The
uneasiness of Hans increased, and he looked towards the door with the most
cowardly intention; and, lo! two laughing, dimpled faces, were peeping in
at them. "Ha! how are you?" said the stranger; "come in! come in!" and to
Hans' horror, two very equivocal damsels entered the shop. Hans felt
scandalised, and was about to make a most powerful remonstrance, when he
encountered the eye of his impertinent customer; and, from its sinister
expression, he thought it wise to be silent. One of the damsels seated
herself upon the stranger's knee, whilst the other looked most coaxingly
to the barber; who, however, remained proof to all her winks and blinks,
and "wreathed smiles."
"'Sblitzen!" exclaimed the lady, "the man's an icicle!"
"Hans, you're a fool!" said the stranger; and his enamorata concurred in
the opinion.
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