"_Enormément!_ I have to work like a _forçat_."
"_Vous ne savez pas ce que c'est qu'un forçat?_"
"No--never mind. We'll say, like a horse; that will do, I dare say. You say then, they make you work like a _forçat_?"
"_Justement!_ I have to open and to lock all doors----"
"I must hear all the day: Mademoiselle, do this! Mademoiselle, do that! And the evening, when I am tired that I cannot keep open the eyes, I must read the stupid old books till madam has the kindness to say: _C'est assez!--Non, madame, ce n'est pas assez; c'est trop--mille fois trop!_" said the lively little lady, and stamped with the foot.
"You seem to have a lively temper," said Mr. Timm. "But that is all right; relieve yourself--that makes the heart lighter--but if the baroness has so much confidence in you, I suppose you are in high favor with her?"
"_Au contraire!_ She me uses, because she me needs. She would give me my _congé_ rather to-day than to-morrow. She me likes, because I not need much sleep and I eat little."
"Well, then, I shall never be in favor with her," said Mr. Timm. "But you, poor child, are in a horrible position here. Much work and no thanks; early rising, and, in return, late retiring; all day threshing corn, like the good-natured beast in the Bible, but no privileges granted, as there recorded--who can stand that? You ought to get married, mademoiselle?"
Marguerite shrugged her shoulders. "Who will marry me? _Je suis si pauvre et si laide!_"
"I grant the former," said Mr. Timm; "the other is vile slander. You ugly? _Au contraire_: you are pretty, mademoiselle, _très_ pretty, very _belle_----"
"No jest," said Mr. Timm. "You are a strikingly handsome girl. In the first place, you have a charming figure----"
"Not a bit," replied Mr. Timm; "secondly, you have prodigiously fine brown eyes, a charming hand, an enchanting little foot----"
"Well, what? It is true, and we can say what is true. I bet _monsieur le docteur_ Stein is of my opinion. Do you love the doctor?"
"I him love?" said the little Frenchwoman, with much animation. "I him love? I him 'ate!"
"Come, come!" laughed Mr. Timm; "why should you? He is a fine-looking man."
"_C'est un bel homme, mais c'est un fat_."
"He is one fool, _oui_, one fool, _qui est monstrueusement amoureux de lui-même; mais avec toute sa fierté je me moque de lui, je me moque de sa fierté, oui, je m'en moque, moi._"
