"That's nothing. When you think you have before you a man with an iron machine in his shoulder that you could hardly lift, you can't help shivering. Oh, it's fine to be a soldier: in fact, you may call it the noblest profession. To begin with, every one respects them, and their life is full of triumph."
"Yes, in time of war, but in time of peace—in time of peace—well, they talk over the way they got their wounds, and the band plays while they are at dinner. It seems the colonel can have the band play whenever he wants to."
"Naturally, since it's his band."
"Well, all that is very nice, and besides that you make calls on the wife of the prefect, the receiver-general and the bishop."
"On the bishop's wife? What are you talking about? Ha! ha!" (She takes off her gloves and begins to bite her nails.)
"I did not say the bishop's wife: you are a naughty girl."
"Besides, it's only a general's wife who makes calls on the prefect's wife, like that."
"I only began with the colonel: one soon gets to be general. Do you suppose that Colonel C——, for instance, won't be a general soon?"
"As for me, I would rather marry a general at once."
"Yes, but a general does not get married in uniform."