"Yes, if you have no one here."
"Oh, but I have; I am just expecting some friends of yours."
"And I am a regular bear, for I do not even dine with my friends; and then, too, in this get-up—"
"Your get-up is all right, and, besides, there is time to send to The Norinière for your coat if you particularly care to have it."
"I do care to, if I stay."
Bijou approached, and said, in a coaxing way:
"You will stay—and do you know what would be very, very nice of you? well, it would be to stay just as you are, without your dress-coat."
"Why do you insist, Bijou, if it annoys him to stay without dressing?" asked the marchioness.
"Because, grandmamma, if M. de Clagny were to dine without his dress-coat, M. Giraud could, too; and otherwise he will have to dine all by himself in his room."
"What are you talking about, child?"