"'Mon Dieu! you can see all that here! It ain't worth while to go out of your way to see monkeys!'
"'Nonsense! it's going to be a lovely fête at Fontenay. You can see for yourself that everybody's going there.'
"'Everybody's just stupid enough; when one makes a spitball, the rest would rather be hung than not do as much.'
"'Oh! Mère Giroux! how spiteful you are!'
"'I say, you Dargenettes, do your parents let you go running about the country like this, without them?'
"'Pardi! nobody'll kidnap us. Besides, Mignonne's with us.'
"'Bless my soul! Mignonne's a fine dragon, ain't she? Why, she's younger'n you! and she rolls her eye the minute anyone looks at her, as if it gave her cramp in the stomach.'
"Mignonne was evidently the pretty blonde in the centre, for she answered at once with a saucy little smile, and a glance at me out of the corner of her eye; for during this conversation I was still standing near the gingerbread stall, and still munching my four-sous' purchase.
"'If I am young, Mère Giroux, that doesn't prevent my keeping an eye on these girls; for I've been in Paris, and I'm not to be caught.'
"'You, Mignonne! nonsense! You'll be caught sooner than the others, I'll bet! You're too sugary; you'll melt!'