"Oh! of course; and that is where I must go for a number? Suppose you give me one, wouldn't that amount to the same thing?"
"Why, no, monsieur; the 'bus doesn't stop here."
"The 'bus is what I want to go on."
"You can go on it or under it; it's none of our affair."
"Do you mean that one can ride underneath?"
The clerk concluded to turn his back on the stupid idiot who asked such questions. Mademoiselle Laurette, having overheard the dialogue, burst out laughing, as she said:
"I'd have sent that fellow to the deuce in short measure. What a booby! You must need a good stock of patience to answer all those questions!"
"Ah! mademoiselle, if you were employed in an omnibus office, you'd hear many things like that!"
"Really! do you mean to say that there are others like him in Paris?"
"There are everywhere, mademoiselle."