"My dear boy, you really can't expect me to think of that all day. It
wouldn't be proper."

He looked at her for a while, more in curiosity than in anger, and said
to her, half bitterly, half gently:

"They may well call you a selfish little jade! Be one, Félicie, be one,
as much as you like! What does it matter, since I love you? You are
mine; I am going to take you back; I am going to take you back, and keep
you. Think! I can't go on suffering for ever, like a poor dumb beast.
Listen. I'll start with a clean slate. Let us begin to love one another
over again. And this time it will be all right. And you'll be mine for
good, mine only. I am an honest man; you know that. You can depend on
me. I'll marry you as soon as I've got a position."

She gazed at him with disdainful surprise. He believed that she had
doubts as to his dramatic future, and, in order to banish them, he said,
erect on his long legs:

"Don't you believe in my star, Félicie? You are wrong. I can feel that I
am capable of creating great parts. Let them only give me a part, and
they'll see. And I have in me not only comedy, but drama, tragedy--yes,
tragedy. I can deliver verse properly. And that is a talent which is
becoming rare in these days. So don't imagine, Félicie, that I am
insulting you when I offer you marriage. Far from it! We will marry
later on, as soon as it is possible and suitable. Of course, there is
no need for hurry. Meanwhile, we will resume our pleasant habits of the
Rue des Martyrs. You remember, Félicie; we were so happy there! The bed
wasn't wide, but we used to say: "That doesn't matter." I have now two
fine rooms in the Rue de la Montagne-Saint-Geneviève, behind