“What! what does that mean? Do you mean to say that you never saw Les Jeux de l’Amour et du Hasard?”
“Did you bring monsieur here to act? I thought that it was to breakfast with us.—Pray sit down, monsieur; my uncle is unendurable with his theatricals!”
“In other words, you are cross this morning; that’s the real fact.”
“I, cross? Upon my word! why should I be cross? What reason have I for being cross?”
“I tell you that you are. However, I warned Monsieur Dalbreuse; I said to him: ‘My niece is mortally offended with you!’”
“Really, uncle, I don’t know what is the matter with you to-day. Did I tell you to say anything like that? Why should I be offended with monsieur? Because he intended to go away last night without even bidding us adieu? But after all, is not monsieur his own master? We are nothing more than mere acquaintances of his; people with whom he is content to amuse himself when it does not put him out, but of whom he ceases to think as soon as he has left them.”
“Oh! I trust you don’t think that, mademoiselle.”
“Yes, monsieur, I do think it; in fact I am convinced of it; if you had looked upon us in any other light, if you had had ever so little regard for us, you would not have wanted to leave us thus, and we should not be indebted solely to the drunkenness of your servant for the pleasure of seeing you again to-day.”
“Mademoiselle, an unexpected circumstance sometimes forces us to part from those persons who are most attractive to us.”
“Yes, to be sure, when there are other persons whom we are in a hurry to see, and for whom we forget even the simplest rules of courtesy.”