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72 "Making a simpleton, a warning, and an example of myself, before a hundred and fifty of the 'papas' and 'mamans' of Villette."

And here, losing patience, I broke out afresh with a cry that I wanted to be liberated, to get out to the air—I was almost in a fever.

"Chut!" said the inexorable, "this was a mere pretext to run away: he was not hot, with the stove close at his back; how could I suffer, thoroughly screened by his person?"

"I did not understand his constitution. I knew nothing of the natural history of salamanders. For my own part, I was a phlegmatic islander, and sitting in an oven did not agree with me; at least, might I step to the well, and get a glass of water—the sweet apples had made me thirsty?"

"If that was all, he would do my errand."

He went to fetch the water. Of course, with a door only on the latch behind me, I lost not my opportunity. Ere his return, his half-worried prey had escaped.