"Not a bit; what do you suppose I am afraid of?" "Indeed, I don't know! but my mother tells me that a young girl runs so much risk when she listens to a man; and you, who listen to more than one, must run a much greater risk!" "But nothing happens to me, you see! for when the young gentlemen presume to do things that are not nice, or make too--too gallant remarks to me, why, it doesn't take me long to send them about their business!" "What are the too gallant remarks, and the things that are not nice?" "Mon Dieu! must I tell you everything? It is strange that you know nothing!" "Where, then, do you suppose that I can learn anything?" "The too gallant remarks--those are when men tell us that we are pretty or attractive--that they love us, that they adore us." "Oh! but it must be nice to have that said to you! Is it necessary to be angry? what a pity!" "One must be very angry when they add: 'Love me, I implore you; reciprocate my love, give me your heart; I will be faithful to you!'--and a lot of oaths, of which they don't mean a word!" "Ah! do you think that they don't mean a word of them? In that case, why do they say them?" "Because it amuses them. But if we listened to them, they would say much more." "And the things that are not nice?" "That is when these fine fellows presume to suit the action to the word. The ones who do that are the boldest; they take your hand, and, while pretending to admire it, they don't hesitate to kiss it; or they put an arm about your waist, and, if they can catch you napping, they try to kiss you." "What! are there men so presumptuous as that?" "Indeed there are! the presumptuous ones are much more numerous than the respectful ones; that is a great pity, for if it were not so----" "Well?" "Why, one might talk with them a little." "Have they ever tried to kiss you?" "Yes, indeed, and more than once; but I know how to defend myself. I box their ears, and I don't do it with any gentle hand, either." "What! you box your customers' ears?" "When the customers make too free with me; but no matter how well you defend yourself, sometimes you cannot escape the kiss." "Have you ever been kissed, Ambroisine?" "Mon Dieu! yes! some of those little pages are so quick, and some of the young nobles so audacious! There is one in particular, Comte Léodgard de Marvejols--you must have heard of him?" "I! why, you forget that I hear nothing, see nothing, know nothing!--What about Comte Léodgard?" "Oh! he's a terrible scapegrace, I tell you! a rake, a roisterer, a seducer! There is only one opinion about him, and not a week passes that he does not set people talking about him. He abducts girls, yes, married women even; he beats their fathers or husbands; he fights duels, cudgels the watch, passes whole days and nights in gambling hells, gambling and drinking; in short, he is worse than the devil!" "O mon Dieu! how frightened I should be of him! He must be very ugly, isn't he?"