"You must not breathe a word to M. Pipelet."
"That I won't, I swear by the head of that dear old duck himself, if it relates to a proper and correct affair."
"Surely, Madame Pipelet, you have too good an opinion of me to suppose, for a minute, that I would insult your chaste ears with anything that was not?"
"Well, then, go it! Let's know all about it, and, I promise you, Alfred shall never be the wiser, be it what it may. Bless you! he is as easy to cheat as a child of six years old."
"I rely implicitly on you; therefore listen to my words."
"I will, my king of lodgers; and remember that we are now sworn friends for life or for death. So go on with your story."
"The young person I spoke to you about has, unfortunately, committed one serious fault."
"I was sure of it! Why, Lord bless you, if I had not married Alfred when I was fifteen years of age, I dare say I should have committed, fifties and hundreds of faults! I? There, just as you see. I was like a barrel of gunpowder at the very sight or mention of a smart young fellow. Luckily for me, Pipelet extinguished the warmth of my nature in the coolness of his own virtue; if he had not, I can't say what might have happened, for I did dearly love the gay deceivers! I merely mention this to say that, if the young person has only done wrong once, then there are great hopes of her."
"I trust, indeed, she will atone for her past misconduct. She was living in service, in Germany, with a relation of mine, and the partner of her crime was the son of this relative. Do you understand?"
"Do I? Don't I? Go along with you! I understand as well as though I had committed the fault myself."