"I am very sure that madame won't receive you. Whom do you come from?"
"Whom do I come from? why from myself, and that's enough. Come, come! do what I tell you, girl; and if we are satisfied with you, we'll give you a kiss."
The maid hastily left the room to tell her mistress.
Thélénie was beginning to be impatient because she had not learned who had ventured to ring her bell with such violence as to break the cord; the alarmed expression of her servant redoubled her curiosity.
"Well! who was it? why were you so long about coming to tell me?"
"Oh! madame, it is—if you knew! I am all upset."
"Explain yourself, I say."
"There's a man there, who looks just like a thief; I believe he is one; he has every appearance of it. Oh! what a horrid man! he frightens me to death! He has on a long coat with holes in the elbows, and a face—an expression——"
"Well! what does this man want?"
"He wants to speak to madame—in private; and if you knew how insolently he talks; one would say that he thought he was in his own house."