“It’s disgusting to make me break the string like this!” said she. “I put a fresh one on every week.”
However, he came nearer to her, intent on some joke or other, by way of revenging the blow; but with a furious glance she reminded him that her mistress was looking on. This seemed to trouble him but little, for he replied with a rakish wink, as much as to say that no woman, not even a lady, disliked a little fun. To be sure, when folks are sweethearting, other people always like to be looking on.
“You have still five years to serve, haven’t you?” asked Hélène, leaning back on the high wooden-seated chair, and yielding to a feeling of tenderness.
“Yes, madame; perhaps only four if they don’t need me any longer.”
It occurred to Rosalie that her mistress was thinking of her marriage, and with assumed anger, she broke in:
“Oh! madame, he can stick in the army for another ten years if he likes! I sha’n’t trouble myself to ask the Government for him. He is becoming too much of a rake; yes, I believe he’s going to the dogs. Oh! it’s useless for you to laugh—that won’t take with me. When we go before the mayor to get married, we’ll see on whose side the laugh is!”
At this he chuckled all the more, in order that he might show himself a lady-killer before madame, and the maid’s annoyance then became real.
“Oh!” said she, “we know all about that! You know, madame, he’s still a booby at heart. You’ve no idea how stupid that uniform makes them all! That’s the way he goes on with his comrades; but if I turned him out, you would hear him sobbing on the stairs. Oh, I don’t care a fig for you, my lad! Why, whenever I please, won’t you always be there to do as I tell you?”
She bent forward to observe him closely; but, on seeing that his good-natured, freckled face was beginning to cloud over, she was suddenly moved, and prattled on, without any seeming transition:
“Ah! I didn’t tell you that I’ve received a letter from auntie. The Guignard lot want to sell their house—aye, and almost for nothing too. We might perhaps be able to take it later on.”