"I tell you that I know absolutely nothing about him. Why do you ask me all these questions?"
"Oh! because I am not at all anxious to meet that gentleman—although he probably wouldn't recognize me, misfortune has changed my features so! But he had a certain animal that might recognize me.—Ah! that infernal dog!"
And again Monsieur Croque put his hand to his left cheek.
"The villain! if ever I get a chance to settle his hash! But perhaps he's dead! I should like it as well if he was dead. Ever since then I've had a horror of dogs.—But never mind all that; the present business is to provide for the little brother; that's the most urgent thing; do you understand, little sister?"
The beautiful brunette was silent for some time; at last she muttered:
"To be economical, to take the pains to save enough to live on, by depriving oneself, and then to have that money squandered by lazy vagabonds, by people who do not know what decent behavior is—do you know that that is decidedly unpleasant?"
Monsieur Croque swayed to and fro on his couch, singing between his teeth:
"When one knows how to love and please,
What else need one desire?"
"A man says to himself when he has a relation with some little means: 'I don't need to work; I'm a great fool to bother my head about the future; when I am out of funds, I'll go to see my sister, I'll appear before her, covered with dirt and dressed in rags, with a long beard—in fact, in a state to arouse compassion; and then I'll tell her that I've been unfortunate, through no fault of my own, and that she must come to my aid.'—That's about what you said to yourself, isn't it?—But suppose this sister should get tired of always coming to the aid of a man whom she has tried more than once to lead back to a decent mode of life; suppose she should say to him: 'I don't propose to have my savings wasted by you again; I won't give you anything!'"
Croque rose and, walking toward Thélénie with a threatening air, cried as loud as his hoarse, rough voice permitted: