After a while my daughter proposed, like the good girl that she is, to carry my mattress down into the room behind the shop; but I was just perverse enough to say no, again, because I had said it before; though by this time I was dying to give in. On the other hand, I hated to have strangers see me in such a state, and then Martine kept at me like a fly, (or a woman,) and could not understand that she talked too much about it, and so injured her own cause. I knew also that if I yielded I should never hear the last of it; so I told her to let me alone, and that is what it finally came to: they all went away and left me to myself, as I had wished; so surely I had nothing to complain of. I had not been willing to tell my real reason, which was, that being a dependent in that house, I hated to give any more trouble than was necessary; but for a man who wanted people to love him, the stupidest thing I could have done was to drive them all away from me; for they took me at my word and soon forgot me,--“Out of sight, out of mind,”--and no one came to see me any more, not even Glodie, though I could hear her laughing downstairs, and smiled at the sound of it; and then sighed, because I could not go and join in the fun as I used to do. “Ungrateful little puss,” I thought, but I knew that I should have done the same in her place, so I blew a kiss towards the stairs. “Have a good time, my pretty one!”--Job lay on his dunghill, you know, and railed at his fate, and I was somewhat in the same position by this time. One day while I was thus agreeably occupied, old Paillard came in; he had a package in his hand, and sat down awkwardly enough, on the foot of my bed; while I received him in a rather crusty manner. He began to talk of one thing and another, but I contradicted every word he said; till at last he was completely put out of countenance, and sat there, clearing his throat, and tapping on the footboard of the bed. I begged him to stop, in an icy tone, and after that he simply did not dare to move a finger. I could hardly help laughing, and thought: “He reproaches himself because he knows that if he had lent me money, I should not have tried to build the wall, and so break my leg. If it had not been for his meanness, none of all this would have happened.” And he did not know what to say, and I would not speak, we kept silence for some time, till at last I broke out, “Why don’t you say something? Any one would think that I was actually at the last gasp; but there’s no use in sitting staring at me like a stuck pig! If you can’t talk, go home! You do not go to see sick people just to hold your tongue; and for goodness’ sake stop fiddling with that book, or whatever it is you have got there!”