"She could not say. All sorts of things. Getting up, dressing, thinking of dinner, cooking dinner, eating dinner, thinking of supper, cleaning her room.... And then the day was over.... And besides you must have a little time for doing nothing!" "And you are not bored?" "Never." "Even when you are doing nothing?" "Especially when I am doing nothing. It is much worse doing something: that bores me." They looked at each other and laughed. "You are very happy!" said Christophe. "I can't do nothing." "It seems to me that you know how." "I have been learning lately." "Ah! well, you'll learn." When he left off talking to her he was at his ease and comfortable. It was enough for him to see her. He was rid of his anxieties, and irritations, and the nervous trouble that made him sick at heart. When he was talking to her he was beyond care: and so when he thought of her. He dared not admit it to himself: but as soon as he was in her presence, he was filled with a delicious soft emotion that brought him almost to unconsciousness. At night he slept as he had never done. * * * * * When he came back from his work he would look into this shop. It was not often that he did not see Sabine. They bowed and smiled. Sometimes she was at the door and then they would exchange a few words: and he would open the door and call the little girl and hand her a packet of sweets. One day he decided to go in. He pretended that he wanted some waistcoat buttons. She began to look for them: but she could not find them. All the buttons were mixed up: it was impossible to pick them out. She was a little put out that he should see her untidiness. He laughed at it and bent over the better to see it. "No," she said, trying to hide the drawers with her hands. "Don't look! It is a dreadful muddle...." She went on looking. But Christophe embarrassed her. She was cross, and as she pushed the drawer back she said: "I can't find any. Go to Lisi, in the next street. She is sure to have them. She has everything that people want." He laughed at her way of doing business. "Do you send all your customers away like that?" "Well. You are not the first," said Sabine warmly. And yet she was a little ashamed: "It is too much trouble to tidy up," she said. "I put off doing it from day to day.... But I shall certainly do it to-morrow." "Shall I help you?" asked Christophe. She refused. She would gladly have accepted: but she dared not, for fear of gossip. And besides it humiliated her. They went on talking. "And your buttons?" she said to Christophe a moment later. "Aren't you going to Lisi?" "Never," said Christophe. "I shall wait until you have tidied up." "Oh!" said Sabine, who had already forgotten what she had just said, "don't wait all that time!" Her frankness delighted them both. Christophe went to the drawer that she had shut. "Let me look." She ran to prevent his doing so. "No, now please. I am sure I haven't any."