"Why, yes, I believe that I have said all that I had to say."
"Then it is my turn. In the first place, where did you think you were going, when you came in here?"
"Where did I think I was going? that's a funny question! Why, I thought that I could not have made a mistake; I knew that I was going to my neighbor's room."
"No, monsieur, when you came in here, you evidently thought that you were going into a stable, for you didn't bow and you kept your hat on your head."
"Oh! that is possible, monsieur, and——"
"When anyone comes into my room, monsieur, I propose, I demand that he shall take off his hat. Come! take yours off at once!"
"What! take my hat off? But suppose I——"
"Suppose you don't choose to? Well, in that case I will just take it off myself, and it won't take long!"
Roncherolle grasped his cane, raised it quickly, and aimed at his fashionable neighbor's head; but he, seeing the gesture, very quickly snatched off his hat, while a shudder of ill augury ran through his frame.
"Now I am going to answer your nonsense, for you haven't said anything else since you came in. I didn't send word to you that you mustn't teach your parrot. In the first place, I am too well-bred, monsieur, I know too much, to employ such terms to a man whom I suppose to be well-bred also; I sent to you a request to suspend your lessons while I am suffering from the gout, because that terrible disease often forces me to pass whole nights without sleep; so that it is very natural that I should wish to enjoy a little repose during the day; and instead of acceding to my request, which a courteous man would have done, monsieur enters my room as if it were a public square, he calls me his 'old man,' and a marmotte, and threatens me with his wrath if I venture to complain again!—Do you know, monsieur, that it is doubly cowardly to insult an old man who is ill and cannot defend himself?"