10 erotic stories direction as I did so. The indignant expression of her flashing eyes gave me the reply which I had expected, but without losing my courage I asked her whether she spoke French. Avoiding my eyes, the colour draining from her face, she replied:

‘Yes, I do, but what has that got to do with you?’ ‘It’s important, as I don’t speak Dutch, and this means we’ll still be able to talk.’

‘To talk! So have you got something to say to me?’ ‘What a question!’ ‘Well, I certainly can’t guess what you want!’ She stopped suddenly, blushing again, and glared at me, stamping her foot and shouting:

‘I ruined my skate because of you.’ ‘Me?’ ‘Yes, it was your fault; if you hadn’t been staring at me like that nothing would have happened…’

‘So do you believe in the evil eye?’ ‘I don’t know what that is; but I do know that if you hadn’t looked at me…’

‘Well, if I did look at you, it was your own fault…’ ‘What do you mean, my fault?’ ‘You’re so beautiful…’ ‘No one has ever looked at me like that…’ ‘Everyone looks…’ ‘I could have done something to my foot…’ ‘Don’t say that; it would have hurt me dreadfully…’ ‘Hurt you, hurt you dreadfully – that’s what I’d very much like to do…’

‘That can’t be true. You’re trying to convince me, with those eyes of yours, that you’re hardhearted.’

‘If you spent more time with me, you’d soon see…’ ‘And why shouldn’t I spend more time with you?’ ‘Well, you may, but only until the end of this street…’ ‘Just that! Don’t you want me to walk with you?’ (Silence.)