"That makes no difference. Oh! it was a long time ago. But come in, Mademoiselle Célestine."
She escorts us, with ceremony, into the back shop, where four other domestics are already gathered about a round table.
"Oh! you will have an anxious time of it, my poor young woman," groaned the grocer, as she offered me a chair. "It is not because they do not patronize me at the château; but I can truly say that it is an infernal house, infernal! Is it not so, Mesdemoiselles?"
"For sure!" answer in chorus, with like gestures and like grimaces, the four domestics thus appealed to.
Madame Gouin continues:
"Oh! thank you, I would not like to sell to people who are continually haggling, and crying out, like pole-cats, that they are being robbed, that they are being injured. They may go where they like."
The chorus of servants responds:
"Surely they may go where they like."
To which Madame Gouin, addressing Rose more particularly, adds, in a firm tone:
"They do not run after them, do they, Mam'zelle Rose? Thank God! we have no need of them, do we?"