Pablo Picasso Ambroise Vollard painting

Pablo Picasso Ambroise Vollard paintingYvonne Jeanette Karlsen Nude paintingSteve Hanks Interior View painting
made to line up and give a modest performance of shuffling and hand clapping which was called a native dance. Women tourists particularly seemed to like these expeditions and paid heavily for them—a hundred francs or more. But they were unpopular with everyone, particularly with the girls, who regarded it as an unseemly proceeding. Once I came in when Fatima was taking part in one of these dances and saw her genuinely and deeply abashed.
On my first visit I told Fatima that I had a wife and six children in England; this greatly enhanced my importance in her eyes and she always asked after them.
“You have had a letter from England? The little ones are well?”
“They are very well.”
“And your father and mother?”
“They, too.”
We sat in a tiled hall, two steps below street level, drinking our mint tea—or, rather, Fatima drank hers while I let mine cool in the glass. It was a noisome beverage.
“Whiskey-soda lent me some cigarettes yesterday. Will you give her them?”
I ordered a packet from the bar.
“Yesterday I had a stomach-ache and stayed in my room. That is why