"Ah, mam'selle, you might be very sure that I would take good care of you!"
"Mais ... monsieur"...
"These gentlemen, I see, have been angling," said the old lady, addressing me very graciously. "Have you caught many fish?"
"None at all, madame!" I replied, loudly.
"Tiens! so many as that?"
"Pardon, madame," I shouted at the top of my voice. "We have caught nothing--nothing at all."
Ma tante smiled blandly.
"Ah, yes," she said; "and you will have them cooked presently for dinner, n'est-ce pas? There is no fish so fresh, and so well-flavored, as the fish of our own catching."
"Will madame and mam'selle do us the honor to taste our fish and share our modest dinner?" said Müller, leaning forward in his seat in the stern, and delivering his invitation close into the old lady's ear.
To which ma tante, with a readiness of hearing for which no one would have given her credit, replied:--