"I understand: she's your mistress!"
"I assure you that she is not. If she were, I should have no reason to conceal the fact."
"Oh! I don't know. There are some ladies who don't want to be given away—when they're married, for instance."
"Once more, I assure you that she is a friend, and nothing more."
"Oh! a friend! I know what that means! So she's an old one, eh?"
"Neither old nor new. Do you suppose that, if that lady were my mistress, she would be obliging enough, when she found me dancing with you, to sit down at the piano and be our orchestra?"
"Oh! but she played the polka fast enough to spoil our wind in a second. It was no use for me to call out: 'A little slower, please, madame!' she didn't listen to me, but banged and banged away! It was a sly trick to wind us both. Oh! I'm not so stupid as you think!"
"But I have never thought that you were stupid; far from it!"
"Really! tell me, do you think I am bright?"
"I think you are charming."