“Yes, yes, monsieur! I’m no prude, and I know what you mean! But don’t be afraid! How could I give another what I refused you?”
She said this with evident feeling and sincerity. Clearly she liked me; I could not doubt it; she was all the more praiseworthy for having resisted me.
“After all, my dear girl, I don’t see why you shouldn’t continue to sell flowers; it is better suited to you than domestic service.”
“That is true, monsieur, but——”
“I understand you. Here, Nicette, take this purse; you may accept it without a blush, for it is not the price of your dishonor. I am simply doing you a favor, lending you a little money, if you like that better.”
“Oh! monsieur, money—from a young man! What will people think of that?”
“You must not say from whom you got it.”
“When a girl suddenly has money in her possession, people think, they imagine that——”
“Let the gossips chatter, and force them to hold their tongues by the way you behave.”
“My mother——”