“May I tell you, do you think?”
“You have said so much already, that I don’t think you need have any scruples in telling me the rest.”
“Very good: you must know, then, that this very day and in my presence he—— -her.”
“If that displeased you, you must be jealous.”
“Possibly, but the fact is that I was humbled by a circumstance I dare not tell you.”
“I think you are laughing at me with your ‘dare not tell you.’”
“God forbid, mademoiselle! I will confess, then, that I was humbled because Madame Lambertini made me see that my friend was taller than myself by two inches.”
“Then she imposed on you, for you are taller than your friend.”
“I am not speaking of that kind of tallness, but another; you know what I mean, and there my friend is really monstrous.”
“Monstrous! then what have you to be sorry about? Isn’t it better not to be monstrous?”