“Well, he is in love with you!”
She burst out laughing wildly, and exclaimed:
“You are only fooling.”
“Oh! no, I am not fooling! He keeps talking of you all through the lesson. I bet that he'll marry you!”
She ceased laughing. The idea of marriage makes every girl serious. Then she repeated, with an incredulous air:
“This is humbug!”
“I swear to you, it's true.”
She picked up her basket which she had laid down at her feet.
“Well, we'll see,” she said. And she went away.
Presently when I had reached the boarding school, I took Pere Piquedent aside, and said: