Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 22, 2025
His uncle Gobenheim-Keller is all the time writing him, 'Get rich enough to marry a Keller. With that idea in his mind you may be sure he doesn't know which sex Modeste belongs to. No other men ever come here, for of course I don't count Butscha, poor little fellow; I love him! He is your Dumay, madame," said the cashier to Madame Latournelle.
That evening Gobenheim did not appear, and Butscha was Dumay's partner against Monsieur and Madame Latournelle.
About a month before the scene to which this explanation is a parenthesis, Madame Mignon had taken counsel with her friends, Madame Latournelle, the notary, and Dumay, while Madame Dumay carried Modeste in another direction for a longer walk. "Listen to what I have to say," said the blind woman. "My daughter is in love. I feel it; I see it.
Butscha bowed without another word, and departed to find his master, in all the rapture of being taken into the service of his goddess. Half an hour later, Monsieur and Madame Latournelle came to fetch Modeste, who complained of a horrible toothache. "I really have not had the courage to dress myself," she said. "Well then," replied the worthy chaperone, "stay at home." "Oh, no!" said Modeste.
As for Latournelle, imagine a worthy little fellow as sly as the purest honor and uprightness would allow him to be, a man whom any stranger would take for a rascal at sight of his queer physiognomy, to which, however, the inhabitants of Havre were well accustomed.
"Go back to Havre; you will get there in time for the last piece at the theatre. I'll pay for your tickets." When the four friends were alone with Madame Mignon, Madame Latournelle, after looking at Dumay, who being a Breton understood the mother's obstinacy, and at her husband who was fingering the cards, felt herself authorized to speak up.
"To get ready for your bedtime, mamma," answered Modeste, in a voice as pure as the tones of an instrument. "You haven't paid your expenses," said the dwarf to Dumay when he returned. "Modeste is as pure as the Virgin on our altar," cried Madame Latournelle. "Good God! such excitements wear me out," said Dumay; "and yet I'm a strong man."
"He is my friend," replied Ernest. "Ha, you are the little secretary?" "You are to know, monsieur, that I am no man's secretary. I have the honor to be of counsel to a supreme court of this kingdom." "I have the honor to salute Monsieur de La Briere," said Butscha. "I myself have the honor to be head clerk to Latournelle, chief councillor of Havre, and my position is a better one than yours.
"Have you a bed where I could sleep it off? My master is as sober as the camel that he is, and Madame Latournelle too. They are brutal enough, both of them, to scold me; and they'd have the rights of it too there are those deeds I ought to be drawing!
When Monsieur Mignon returned to the salon, and Modeste, having received a last bow from the two friends as the carriage turned, went back to her seat, a weighty discussion took place, such as provincials invariably hold over Parisians after a first interview. Gobenheim repeated his phrase, "Is he rich?" as a chorus to the songs of praise sung by Madame Latournelle, Modeste, and her mother.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking