"Sénange is shaking all by himself at this moment."
"I heard him say that he had won."
"Pardieu! yes, for I have won; I bet that with my dice I would draw the Comte de Marvejols hither.—Tell me, my masters, did I succeed?—Come, Léodgard, sit down and laugh a bit with us! What is the use of losing your temper with Fortune? What good does it do? She's a woman; what she will not grant to-day, she will grant to-morrow."
"Moreover, Comte Léodgard cannot accuse Fortune with a good grace; for if she is adverse to him at play, with the fair she seems to treat him like a spoiled child."
"There is a report of a certain bonne fortune with a damsel on Rue Dauphine; and I hear that the little one is as beautiful as Cupid. She was kept carefully concealed, but that devil of a Léodgard would discover her kind at the bottom of a well or on top of the steepest cliffs!"
"Come, Léodgard, tell us about this intrigue."
"Yes, yes! tell us about this bourgeois bonne fortune. It will help us to pass the time until Montrevert comes; he must have fallen into some hole in the road."
Léodgard stretched himself out carelessly on the grass and looked at his companions, saying:
"Has anyone anything to drink? I am extremely thirsty, and I can't tell my story unless I have something to drink."
"By Saint Jacques! I would like a drink, too!" muttered young Monclair, making vain efforts to sit up.