Then interrupting herself to enjoy a hearty laugh, Miss Dimpleton
cried: "Look! look at that fat woman, with her old furrowed shoes; one
could imagine her drawn along by two cats without tails!" And again
she laughed merrily.

"I prefer looking at you, neighbor; I am so happy in thinking you
already love me."

"I tell you so, because it is so; if you did not please me, I should
say so all the same. I cannot reproach myself with having ever
deceived or flattered any one; when people please me, I tell them so
at once."

Then, interrupting herself again, to stop before a shop-window, the
grisette exclaimed:

"Oh, look at that beautiful clock, and those two pretty vases! I have
already saved up three francs and a half toward buying some like them.
In five or six years I may be able to manage it."

"Saved up, neighbor? Then you earn--"

"At least thirty sous a day--sometimes forty, but I only reckon upon
thirty; it is more prudent, and I regulate my expenses accordingly,"
said Miss Dimpleton, with an air as important as though it related to
the transactions of a financier.

"But with thirty sous a day, how can you manage to live?"

"The reckoning is not difficult; shall I explain it to you, neighbor?