"I must wear it out," he would say; "it's very good still. I can't have another coat made while this looks like a new one."
"Good-morning, mesdames, how do you do? Allow me to congratulate myself on the pleasure of making your acquaintance."
"Pray be seated, monsieur," said Honorine, offering a chair to her visitor, who entered the room with a radiant expression and approached her as if he proposed to begin by embracing her.
"With pleasure, belle dame; I don't like to remain standing, one has enough of that in the street. Ha! ha! ha! that is a mot! you will excuse me, I know; I make many mots! I am an inveterate joker. Ha! ha! ha! As the ballad says: 'We must laugh, we must drink to hospitality.'—I believe it's in Le Déserteur, but I am not quite sure."
"Does monsieur live in the neighborhood?"
"Yes, belle dame, within two steps—two and a bit.—Luminot, proprietor of vineyards. Always in the vines. Ha! ha! ha! Pray don't think that I am always tipsy though; it's another mot! In Paris I sold wines at wholesale—excuse this detail.[J] Ha! ha! Well, how do you like our countryside, belle dame? I say belle dame, because I presume that this is your daughter—demoiselle."
"Ah! it would be funny if I were her daughter!" exclaimed Agathe; "in that case I should have a mother only ten years older than I!"
"Oh! a thousand pardons! I am a reckless fellow," rejoined the former wine merchant; "I made a mistake; I had not looked carefully at mademoiselle; I see now that you are her aunt."
"You are not a sorcerer to-day, monsieur, you do not guess right. Agathe is simply my friend; but I love her like a daughter and a sister at once."
"Very good, I understand; she's your cousin à la mode de Bretagne.—We are both happy and proud to have in our village two roses from the Capital—I might say a rose and a bud. Ha! ha! you catch my thought? Still another mot! What the devil can you expect; when one has sold spirits, one must retain a little; I didn't sell everything, and it was not in vain that I was in wines.[K] Ha! ha! ha! I beg your pardon; I can't help it.—Oh! oh! oh!"