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74 "No; only Dr. Bretton."

"And he told you to look at that picture?"

"By no means: I found it out for myself."

M. Paul's hair was shorn close as raven down, or I think it would have bristled on his head. Beginning now to perceive his drift, I had a certain pleasure in keeping cool, and working him up.

"Astounding insular audacity!" cried the Professor. "Singulières femmes que ces Anglaises!"

"What is the matter, monsieur?"

"Matter! How dare you, a young person, sit coolly down, with the self-possession of a garçon, and look at that picture?"

"It is a very ugly picture, but I cannot at all see why I should not look at it."

"Bon! bon! Speak no more of it. But you ought not to be here alone."

"If, however, I have no society—no party, as you say? And then, what does it signify whether I am alone, or accompanied? nobody meddles with me."

"Taisez-vous, et asseyez-vous là—là!" Setting down a chair with emphasis in a particularly dull corner, before a series of most specially dreary "cadres."