"Do you really think so? It must be very nice to be rich! Well, as I was saying, my aunt is forever telling me that she does everything for me, that I cost her a great deal, that I spend much more than my money brings in--for she is my guardian. But, oh! Monsieur Paul, if you knew what she gives me for my breakfast and dinner, you would say that it was none too much! Luckily, I'm not a glutton, whatever she may say. Ten sous for breakfast and dinner--can one be a glutton with that?" "No, indeed, mademoiselle. But it is very wrong of your aunt to give you so little for your food. Your money must certainly bring in seven hundred francs a year--which would give you about thirty-nine sous a day to spend. So if she gives you only ten sous for your board, she keeps twenty-nine for your lodging." "Oh! I think you must be mistaken, Monsieur Paul; my aunt says that my money brings in barely twenty sous a day,--that's a long way from thirty-nine,--and that she has to use some of her own to clothe me." "I am not mistaken, mademoiselle. I know how to reckon, for I haven't always been a messenger. For eight years, I was employed in a merchant's office, and I worked over figures and accounts all day." "Really, Monsieur Paul? Ah! I thought---- You don't look like a messenger--like the others. You talk well, and you don't swear. Were you obliged to take up this business?" "Yes, mademoiselle; my benefactor died, and I had not a sou. As I couldn't find a place, I thought it was better to be a messenger than to idle away my time and live, as so many do, at others' expense." "You are quite right. After all, there is nothing despicable in being a messenger; you're not a servant, as the girls in our workroom are so fond of calling you. Oh! they say that to make me furious, because I always stand up for you." "Stand up for me? You say that you sometimes talk about me in your workroom?" Mademoiselle Elina blushed as she replied: "Oh!--that is to say--we talk about messengers in general--and as we have employed you several times---- But I stand chattering here, when I came down to buy something at the linen draper's, and I haven't told you yet what I wanted to ask you. My aunt says that I talk too much. As far as that goes, perhaps she is right; it's such fun to talk--not with everybody, of course, but with people who--listen to you--and--that is to say---- Mon Dieu! it seems to me that I am getting all mixed up, and don't know what I am saying." Paul ventured to glance at the pretty dressmaker once more. Her face wore such a comical expression, as she twisted a corner of her apron in her hands, that the young man smiled involuntarily, and his smile was reflected on Elina's lips; for between two persons who are sympathetic a smile is like a train of powder: the spark is hardly applied at one end before it reaches the other. "I wanted to ask you, Monsieur Paul, if you could come and help me move to-morrow morning?" "Yes, mademoiselle; with great pleasure."