"The Boulard ladies, your friend Dubotté and his wife——"
"Oh! he never comes!"
"He said that he would try to come this time. Then the brothers Bridoux. There'll be quite a lot of us. But we shall have to pass round refreshments during the evening."
"Very well; you can give them cocoa."
"No, monsieur, no! Cocoa does well enough when we have nobody but your sister and Monsieur Callé, who is very abstemious; but for this Italian count we must have something else."
"Well, lemonade, then. Squeeze a lemon in two or three quarts of water; it's very refreshing."
"That's my affair, monsieur; I will think it over, and find a way to provide what is right. You will dress, monsieur, I trust?"
"Ain't I all right as I am?"
"No, certainly not; your linen is soiled, and your waistcoat all covered with spots. You must put on a black coat."
"I don't own such a thing."