"Ah, çà!" impatiently waving his politeness aside; "but I owe you much, and I would do you a service if possible."
"I thank you, mademoiselle."
"You think it impossible? Perhaps. I am nothing. I am only a poor little woman, monsieur,—alone in the world. But I know this world,—I have wrestled with it. I have had hard falls,—I got up again. Therefore my experience has been bitter; but still it is experience."
"Sad experience, doubtless."
"Yes; and it ought to have taught me something, even if I were the most stupid and vicious, eh?"
"Surely," he said.
"And my counsel ought to have some value in your eyes?"
"Why, yes; certainly, mademoiselle."
"At least it is disinterested——"
"Sure!"