"Very good! I agree with you, on my honor. I think you did well to adopt that course." "Why?" "Because it makes you resemble Dido. But let us change the subject; tell me quickly what time it is." "_Dame!_ it's a good half-hour--yes, at least half an hour--since I heard the clock strike twelve." "Then say at once that it's half-past twelve. Bigre! I have been lazy, and no mistake; but when I came in last night, it was two o'clock in the morning." "No earlier; and you woke me up, too; you always make such a noise on the stairs!" "At all events, I didn't wake your concierge, as you haven't one." "What's the good of a concierge?--Everybody knows the secret of the passageway, and they can come in when they choose." "And by feeling their way, which is often very imprudent." "But I believe you rode home last night. Do the omnibuses run as late as that nowadays?" "Omnibuses! Understand, Widow Louchard, that when I come home after midnight, I always come in a coupe or a cab." "Peste! so the funds have gone up, have they? You'd better give me something on account." "Don't bother me! I gave you ten francs." "That was two months ago." "That's not the question. Has anybody called to see me this morning?" "No, not a cat." "Not a cat! Oh! the cowards!" "Why do you say that cats are cowards? Mine would fight a bulldog." "I'm not talking about your cat, Widow Louchard; but about a lot of braggarts, all of whom challenged me yesterday, and who don't dare to call on me to-day." "Do you mean that you wanted to fight again, pray? Good God! is it a disease with you? It isn't so very long since you were cured of that bullet in your side." "Bah! a trifle, a scratch. I am not quarrelsome; but when a man seems to look askance at me, that irritates me. After all, I am not particular about seeing those walking rushlights of the Blanquette wedding party. But there was another man; if he doesn't come, I shall be surprised. However, it's not too late yet; he was only married yesterday, and a man doesn't get up very early on the day after his wedding." "What! you expect to fight with someone who was married yesterday?" "Why not? We marry, we fight, we kill--or are killed! Such is life, lovely Artemisia!" "What makes you call me Artemisia? that isn't my name." "Because she was a widow who profoundly regretted her husband." "But I have never regretted mine a single minute." "That makes no difference.--So you say it's half-past twelve? Sapristi! Madame Louchard, when is that clock coming that you've been promising me so long?" "I'm waiting for a good chance. I want something to match the rest of the furniture." "In that case, my dear friend, as I have here a so-called Louis XIII desk, a Louis XV armchair, and a Louis XVI commode, it seems to me that you cannot do otherwise than procure a Louis XIV clock, to fill up the inter-regnum and reestablish the continuity of the dynasty."