“Do you mean to say you don’t know it?”
“Know what, Monsieur Monin?”
“What I just told you.”
“Not yet; but if you would be good enough to explain——”
“The fact is, monsieur, it gave me such a blow!”
“Indeed, you seem to be a little confused.”
“Didn’t it have the same effect on you?”
“I don’t know as yet what effect it will have on me, Monsieur Monin, or how I am interested in what you came to tell me.”
“Oh! Monsieur Dalville, if we could have guessed; if we could have foreseen! But, bless my soul! we aren’t sorcerers; that’s what I told Bichette this morning when she insisted on taking my snuff-box away.”
“I never supposed that you were a sorcerer, Monsieur Monin; but I confess that at this moment I find you rather incomprehensible.”