"Clairette!"
"Oh, rats!"
"Don't get the needle! I'm off my rocker to-night."
"Ah! That's all right, cully!" Her hand was swift. "I've been there myself."
"Clairette!" He caught her close.
"Here, what are you at?" she cried. "Drop it!"
"Clairette! Say 'yes.' I'm loony about you. There's a duck! I'll be a daisy of a husband. Won't you?"
"Oh, I—I don't know," she stammered.
And thus were they betrothed.
To express what Flouflou felt would be but to harrow the reader's sensibilities. What he said, rendered into English, was: "I'd rather you had given me the go-by for any cove in the crowd than that swine!"