“Aquilina! you are laughing, of course?”

“Oh, very well; and are you not laughing too?  Do you take me for a fool, telling me that you are going away?  ’I am going to start to-night!’” she said, mimicking his tones.  “Stuff and nonsense!  Would you talk like that if you were really going away from your Naqui?  You would cry, like the booby that you are!”

“After all, if I go, will you follow?” he asked.

“Tell me first whether this journey of yours is a bad joke or not.”

“Yes, seriously, I am going.”

“Well, then, seriously, I shall stay.  A pleasant journey to you, my boy!  I will wait till you come back.  I would sooner take leave of life than take leave of my dear, cozy Paris—­”

“Will you not come to Italy, to Naples, and lead a pleasant life there—­a delicious, luxurious life, with this stout old fogey of yours, who puffs and blows like a seal?”

“No.”

“Ungrateful girl!”

“Ungrateful?” she cried, rising to her feet.  “I might leave this house this moment and take nothing out of it but myself.  I shall have given you all the treasures a young girl can give, and something that not every drop in your veins and mine can ever give me back.  If, by any means whatever, by selling my hopes of eternity, for instance, I could recover my past self, body as soul (for I have, perhaps, redeemed my soul), and be pure as a lily for my lover I would not hesitate a moment!  What sort of devotion has rewarded mine?  You have housed and fed me, just as you give a dog food and a kennel because he is a protection to the house, and he may take kicks when we are out of humor, and lick our hands as soon as we are pleased to call to him.  And which of us two will have been the more generous?”

“Oh! dear child, do you not see that I am joking?” returned Castanier.  “I am going on a short journey; I shall not be away for very long.  But come with me to the Gymnase; I shall start just before midnight, after I have had time to say good-by to you.”

“Poor pet! so you are really going, are you?” she said.  She put her arms round his neck, and drew down his head against her bodice.

“You are smothering me!” cried Castanier, with his face buried in Aquilina’s breast.  That damsel turned to say in Jenny’s ear, “Go to Leon, and tell him not to come till one o’clock.  If you do not find him, and he comes here during the leave-taking, keep him in your room.—­Well,” she went on, setting free Castanier, and giving a tweak to the tip of his nose, “never mind, handsomest of seals that you are.  I will go to the theater with you this evening.  But all in good time; let us have dinner!  There is a nice little dinner for you—­just what you like.”

“It is very hard to part from such a woman as you!” exclaimed Castanier.

“Very well then, why do you go?” asked she.

“Ah! why? why?  If I were to begin to explain the reasons why, I must tell you things that would prove to you that I love you almost to madness.  Ah! if you have sacrificed your honor for me, I have sold mine for you; we are quits.  Is that love?”