"I am less stupid than other women, that's all!" "However, mademoiselle, if one must settle a fortune on you in order to obtain your favors, you must understand that everybody can't afford to indulge in such a passion." "A fortune! Oh! no, monsieur, I am not so ambitious as all that; a fortune is not what I ask, but simply the means to bring up the child that is so often the result of a woman's fault." "Ah! you have in mind only the result! But suppose there isn't any result?" "Why, then it will be for the poor girl herself, who will at least be secure against want." "Ah! it will be for the girl, if it isn't needed for the child! Very good! You think of everything! You would make an excellent cashier for a broker!" "Why, I should not object to that. As a general rule, men earn more with the pen than women do with the needle." "That is why women don't look to their needle to satisfy their coquetry." "They have no choice, since they are forced to it." "Nobody forces them to be coquettes." "But you would be very sorry if they were not!" Monsieur de Mardeille continued to pace the floor, humming between his teeth: "'When one knows how to love and please, what other boon can one desire?' No, no! that song isn't appropriate!-- 'A bandage covers the eyes of the god that makes men love!' That is nearer the truth.-- 'Come, lady fair, I await thee, I await thee, I await thee!" Georgette went on with her work, as if he were not there. When he was tired of singing, he went to the shirtmaker's side and said to her abruptly: "What ought it to cost for a child's porridge?" Georgette replied, with a smile: "Seek and ye shall find." "Ah! now you are quoting the Gospel at me! But Saint Peter was scoffing at us when he said that; for there's one thing that I have constantly sought and have never found. I won't tell you what it is, out of respect for your sex, but any man will guess my meaning. But I return to what I asked you just now. It seems to me that with two or three thousand francs one ought to be able to provide porridge in large quantities and for a long time!" "Do you expect a child to live on nothing but porridge?" "That or something like it. A child eats so little!" "But food isn't the only thing it needs. When it grows up, its education must be attended to, mustn't it? and then, it must be apprenticed and taught a trade. It must know how to earn its living, so that it can help its mother when the time comes." "Oh! tra la la! there's no reason why you shouldn't go on! Why don't you ask me at once to buy a substitute for him if it's a boy, or to give her a dowry if it's a girl?" "Why, that would be no more than right!" "Didn't I tell you, mademoiselle, that you demanded a fortune?" "No, monsieur, you exaggerate. For it seems to me--yes, let us suppose that there's a boy to be brought up--I am inclined to think that with twelve thousand francs it might be done."