"
"How kind you are to come again to-day!"
"Again! what! that is a reproach."
"Ought I not, in truth, reproach you for doing so much for me--for me, who
can do nothing but thank you?"
"An error, sir; for I am also as happy from my visits as you are. So I
must, in my turn, thank you. Ah! ah! there is where I have caught you,
Master Unjust. I have half a mind to punish you for your wicked ideas, by
not giving you what I have brought."
"Another kindness! how you spoil me!--oh! thank you. Pardon me if I repeat
so often this word, which you dislike!--but you leave me nothing else to
say."
"In the first place, you do not know what I have brought."
"What is that to me?"
"Well, you are polite!"
"Whatever it may be, does it not come from you? Your touching kindness,
does it not fill me with gratitude, and----"
Germain could not finish, but cast down his eyes.
"And with what?" asked Rigolette, blushing.
"And with--and with devotion," stammered Germain.
"Why not add respect at once, like at the end of a letter," said Rigolette
impatiently. "You deceive me; it was not that which you intended to say.
You stopped short."
"I assure you----"
"You assure me!--you assure me! I see you blush through the grating. Am I
not your little friend, your neighbor? Why do you conceal anything? Be
frank, then, with me; tell me all," added the grisette, timidly; for she
only waited for an avowal from Germain to tell him openly that she loved
him.
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