"Twenty-five," another said immediately.
"Make her hold her head up so that we can have a look at her," a third cried brutally.
"Come, little one," the agent said, as he obliged her to remove her hands from her face; "be polite and let them look at you, it is for your own good, hang it all! Twenty-five crowns."
"Fifty," said Belle Tête, without moving from the spot.
All eyes were turned to him; up to this moment Belle Tête had professed a profound hatred for marriage.
"Sixty," shouted an adventurer who did not desire to buy the girl, but wished to annoy his comrade.
"Seventy," said another with the same charitable intention.
"One hundred," Belle Tête shouted angrily.
"One hundred crowns, gentlemen, one hundred for Louise for three years," the stoical agent said.
"One hundred and fifty."