“Very good, Monsieur Camuzard; my health is very fair, although it isn’t all that I could wish.”
“Are you in pain?—I have pains in my knees and arms; and it keeps catching me here, you see, and extends all the way down my back.”
“It’s not my back that troubles me, it’s——”
“And then I cough a great deal every morning when I wake up; there are days when I have regular paroxysms.”
“I don’t cough, but——”
“And then I expectorate very freely! Oh! I don’t try to stop that—it does me good.”
“This is not a very amusing conversation!” said Madame Dufournelle in an undertone to her husband; he frowned at his wife, to enjoin silence upon her, whereupon she went to Mademoiselle Eolinde.
“Well!” she said, “what are we to act? have you decided on the plays? What part are you going to give me? I want a pretty costume.”
“You see how co—co—coquettish she is!” said Mademoiselle Glumeau, turning to her mother; “the co—costume is the first th—th—thing she th—thinks of.”
“We haven’t yet decided on the whole entertainment,” said Madame Glumeau; “we are waiting until our whole troupe has arrived.”