“Because I have a good heart.”
“You are very fond of me, perhaps—just as the butcher likes the ox that he drives to the slaughter-house.”
“Are you mad?”
“A man does not pay a hundred thousand francs for another without a motive.”
“I have a motive.”
“What is it? what do you want to do with me?”
“A jolly companion that will spend his money like a man, and pass every night like the last. Good wine, good cheer, pretty girls, and gay songs. Is that such a bad trade?”
After he had remained a moment without answering, the young man replied with a gloomy air: “Why, on the eve of my leaving prison, did you attach this condition to my freedom, that I should write to my mistress to tell her that I would never see her again! Why did you exact this letter from me?”
“A sigh! what, are you still thinking of her?”
“Always.”