"You must admit that it has taken you some time. And why were you so disagreeable with me? You never spoke to me; you were always rough with me. You remember the scenes that you made me when I went through the paths that you had just raked? Oh! how crusty you were!"
Joseph began to laugh, and shrugged his shoulders:
"Oh! yes; why, you know, one cannot get acquainted with people at the very start. And women especially,—it takes the devil to know them. And you came from Paris! Now I know you very well."
"Since you know me so well, Joseph, tell me, then, what I am."
With set lips and serious eyes, he said:
"What you are, Célestine? You are like me."
"I am like you, I?"
"Oh! not in your features, of course. But you and I, in the very depths of the soul, are the same thing. Yes, yes, I know what I say."
Again there was a moment of silence. Then he resumed, in a voice that was less stern:
"I have a feeling of friendship for you, Célestine. And then...."