And if I go away--Will you love me a little?

Pamela
Yes, for the only time I like you is when you are away!

Joseph
And if I never came back?

Pamela
I should be delighted.

Joseph
Zounds! Why should I, senior apprentice with M. Morel, instead of
aiming at setting up business for myself, fall in love with this young
lady? It is folly! It certainly hinders me in my career; and yet I
dream of her--I am infatuated with her. Suppose my uncle knew it!--But
she is not the only woman in Paris, and, after all, Mlle. Pamela
Giraud, who are you that you should be so high and mighty?

Pamela
I am the daughter of a poor ruined tailor, now become a porter. I gain
my own living--if working night and day can be called living--and it
is with difficulty that I snatch a little holiday to gather lilacs in
the Pres-Saint-Gervais; and I certainly recognize that the senior
apprentice of M. Morel is altogether too good for me. I do not wish to
enter a family which believes that it would thus form a mesalliance.
The Binets indeed!

Joseph
But what has happened to you in the last eight or ten days, my dear