But sometimes, when Valentine asked, leave would not be granted him; and this occasioned an irregularity in his nightly attendance at the shop, that finally obliged Monsieur Leroux to say to him:
"Valentine, my man, unless you can attend better, I shall have to discharge you altogether, and get a full clerk, which would be better anyway, as he could be here all the time."
Full of trouble at this prospect, Valentine the next day mentioned this to his master, who, happening to be in an ill-humor, answered:
"What the fiend is all that to me, sir? Old Leroux is liable to prosecution for hiring your services at all without a permit."
"But it was in over-hours—in my own time," remonstrated Valentine.
"Your own time! Pray, sir, what time is that? I have yet to learn that you have any time of your own!"
Valentine suppressed his indignation, but that was as much as he could do. He dared not trust himself to reply.
"Leave the room! The sight of you irritates me. And be very thankful that I do not prosecute your friend, old Leroux, with his mulatto clerks and shop-girls! These beasts of Frenchmen have not the slightest idea of the distinctions of race."
Silently, Valentine left the room, to retire and have another wrestle with his pride and anger.
That evening he was not permitted to go to see Fannie; and, from that time the permission to visit her was less and still less frequently granted.