You say you have given up taking her seriously; but you take her seriously so long as you take her at all." Valentin turned round in his place and looked a while at Newman, wrinkling his forehead and rubbing his knees.

"Vous parlez d'or.

But she has wonderfully pretty arms.

Would you believe I didn't know it till this evening ?" "But she is a vulgar little wretch, remember, all the same," said Newman.
"Yes; the other day she had the bad taste to begin to abuse her father, to his face, in my presence.

I shouldn't have expected it of her; it was a disappointment; heigho!" "Why, she cares no more for her father than for her door-mat," said Newman.