"But, aunt! you know I am going into the country."
"I know nothing about it: you have not told me."
"I have spoken of it a hundred times in your presence."
"I am not accustomed," said Madame Ballier, "to take to myself what is not directly addressed to me."
"Well, then, aunt, I tell you now; I repeat it," replied Louis, with redoubled vehemence.
"I have an idea, sir," said Madame Ballier, very gravely, and rising at the same time, "that you will ask me for them in a different manner."
Louis half bent his knee, and in a tone which in his anger he endeavoured to render derisive, said, "Will my aunt have the kindness, the magnanimity, the clemency to give me my keys?"
Madame Ballier made a movement as if to go away. Louis threw himself before her: the clock was striking four, the hour appointed for the rendezvous at M. Lebeau's. "Aunt," he exclaimed, and without perceiving that the tone of his voice had become almost menacing: "Aunt, I entreat you ... where are my keys?"
"In a place," replied Madame Ballier, who on her part was beginning to lose her self-control; "in a place where you will not get them until it suits me."
"You will not give them to me, then?"