“But does it not?”
“Make a change between us!—such a thing as that! Oh, John!”
“But tell me, Maria, what am I to hope? If you will say that you can love me, I shall care nothing for the marquis. In that case I can bear to be laughed at.”
“Who will dare to laugh at you? Not the marquis, whom I am sure you will like.”
“Your friend in this plaza, who told you of all this.”
“What, poor Tomàs!”
“I do not know about his being poor. I mean the gentleman who was with you last night.”
“Yes, Tomàs. You do not know who he is?”
“Not in the least.”
“How droll! He is your own clerk—partly your own, now that you are one of the firm. And, John, I mean to make you do something for him; he is such a good fellow; and last year he married a young girl whom I love—oh, almost like a sister.”