"He has a maid, mademoiselle, and myself."
"Servants don't count, monsieur. I shall not go to your master's apartment; if he has an order to give me, he can take the trouble to come here; I will receive him and his twenty-five thousand francs a year, with or without a carriage!"
Frontin was piqued; in the first place, because the young woman had said that servants did not count; and secondly, because she seemed to make very little account of his master's exalted position. He replied, with evident irritation:
"Why, where would be the harm, mademoiselle? Suppose you should come to Monsieur de Mardeille's rooms; you wouldn't be the first one to do it! He receives ladies—a great many ladies! And they are ladies, too, who don't work for everybody."
"Monsieur le valet de chambre, you are a donkey! You talk nothing but nonsense!"
"What's that? I am a donkey! Allow me——"
"I don't doubt that your master receives many ladies, and for that very reason I don't propose to add to the number."
"But——"
"Enough of this! You have my answer; go and repeat it to Monsieur de Mardeille."
Frontin was on the point of making some retort, when a great uproar in the courtyard attracted the attention of all the tenants of the house.