But, besides, I am not pledged to make you laugh.

Times are not always gay in Bohemia.
Jacques and Francine had met in a house in the Rue de la Tour-d'Auvergne, into which they had both moved at the same time at the April quarter.
The artist and the young girl were a week without entering on those neighborly relations which are almost always forced on one when dwelling on the same floor.

However, without having exchanged a word, they were already acquainted with one another.

Francine knew that her neighbor was a poor devil of an artist, and Jacques had learned that his was a little seamstress who had quitted her family to escape the ill-usage of a stepmother.

She accomplished miracles of economy to make both ends meet, and, as she had never known pleasure, had no longing for it.