"Well, madame?"
Such was the curt and menacing greeting exchanged between the fermier-general and his wife.
"You appear dissatisfied," he said, after an interval, and having taken a chair.
"I am so."
"This is tiresome, ma femme."
"Yes, insupportably; this, and every thing else that passes here."
"It appears to me, you are somewhat hard to please."
"Quite the reverse. I ask but to mix in human society."
"You have society enough, madame."
"I have absolutely none, sir."