"My little girl? What do you mean? I don't understand you."
"Oh, well! if we're going to play the stupid, if we have secrets from our friends—that's a different matter, and you'd better say so. Do you suppose I don't know that you're in love with one of the dressmaker's apprentices, a pretty little thing named Elina, who takes short, quick steps when she passes us, which doesn't prevent her casting a sly glance in your direction?"
"Really, Sans-Cravate! do you think she looks at me when she passes?"
"You don't see her yourself, I suppose, you fox?"
"Oh! I assure you, Sans-Cravate, that I have never said a word to that young woman which could make her suspect that I dare to think of her. I think her very pretty, that is true; and then, she is so pleasant and so courteous when she gives me an errand to do! There are so many people who treat us messengers as if we were brutes or savages!"
"When anybody takes that tone with me, I pay him back in his own coin. If people are decent, I am amiable; if they're insolent, then I'm brutal! and be damned to 'em!"
"But when one is obliged to work for his living, he must work for everybody."
"Not at all! I choose my patrons. Indeed, I very often fold my arms."
"Several times Mademoiselle Elina has taken me with her to carry boxes, and she always talks to me so kindly—— Ah! it makes me forget that I am only a poor messenger."
"In short, you are in love with the girl; that's the whole story."