Page:Villette (1st edition).djvu/846

166 "Et vous, mademoiselle; vous êtes proprette et douillette, et affreusement insensible, par-dessus le marché."

"But, in short, monsieur, now I think of it, you must live somewhere? Do tell me where; and what establishment of servants do you keep?"

With a fearful projection of the under lip, implying an impetus of scorn the most decided, he broke out—

"Je vis dans un trou! I inhabit a den, miss—a cavern, where you would not put your dainty nose. Once, with base shame of speaking the whole truth, I talked about my 'study' in that college: know now that this 'study' is my whole abode; my chamber is there and my drawing-room. As for my 'establishment of servants'" (mimicking my voice) "they number ten: les voilà!"

And he grimly spread, close under my eyes, his ten fingers.

"I black my boots," pursued he, savagely. " I brush my paletôt."

"No, monsieur, it is too plain; you never do that," was my parenthesis.

"Je fais mon lit et mon ménage; I seek my dinner in a restaurant; my supper takes care of