“Eleven, without counting those who were walking in the streets.”
“How you answer me!”
“Yes, and how you question me! As if you’d been following the trade of an examining judge for the last ten years!”
“Come, tell me all you’ve done to-day, it will amuse me. You ought to try to please me while you are here! I’m dull enough when you leave me alone all day long.”
“You want me to amuse you by telling you about business?”
“Formerly, you told me everything—”
This friendly little reproach disguises the certitude that Caroline wishes to enjoy respecting the serious matters which Adolphe wishes to conceal. Adolphe then undertakes to narrate how he has spent the day. Caroline affects a sort of distraction sufficiently well played to induce the belief that she is not listening.
“But you said just now,” she exclaims, at the moment when Adolphe is getting into a snarl, “that you had paid seven francs for cabs, and you now talk of a hack! You took it by the hour, I suppose? Did you do your business in a hack?” she asks, railingly.
“Why should hacks be interdicted?” inquires Adolphe, resuming his narrative.
“Haven’t you been to Madame de Fischtaminel’s?” she asks in the middle of an exceedingly involved explanation, insolently taking the words out of your mouth.