(_Touching the various objects in disgust_.) What's this? A distaff? Bless me, what for?... A pumpkin, a cake, an old bowl and goodness knows what else!... A tub full of dead eels! Gracious, how they smell!... It's all disgracefully kept.... And that lot of old fly-blown, spun-glass dresses!... My dear, how horrible!... What sort of place can this be? A potting-shed, a rag-and-bone shop, a pawn-broker's, or a thieves' kitchen? Whom can it belong to? A receiver of stolen goods? (_Touching the more bizarre dresses_.) Or a Hottentot dressmaker? BELLINE There's something of everything ... except a broom and a duster. ROSARELLE One wouldn't be enough. BELLINE And nothing to sit on but an old wooden bench.... ROSARELLE But it's carved, my love!... BELLINE Yes, carved in dust. ROSARELLE Reach me one of those hideous rags and let me wipe it.... BELLINE (_Eagerly and obsequiously_.) Wait, miss, I'll do that.... (_She takes the moon-coloured dress and dusts the seat with it_.) There, that's a little better; that's at least one corner nearly clean enough to sit on. ROSARELLE (_Sitting down_.) I'm tired out! BELLINE (_Sitting down beside her_.) So am I; my feet are dreadfully sore. ROSARELLE (_Looking around through her lorgnette_.) But what I want to know is where have we got to? My dear, have we fallen into a trap? BELLINE The company certainly is a little mixed. There's the miller's daughter, the girl from the inn, the wood-cutter.... ROSARELLE Or rather, to be accurate, the wood-stealer.... There's even the little beggar-girl from the bridge by the Hermitage, to whom I refused a penny last Sunday.... My dear, you should have heard the insolent way in which she asked for it!... BELLINE And what's that white image standing in the corner, the one that never stirs, never speaks and follows us wherever we go? ROSARELLE That great lump of clay, that ugly wax-work? That washed-out plaster saint? BELLINE She looks very ill. ROSARELLE She may have Jewish leprosy or Zanzibar plague or Bombay cholera.... I tell you, we must be careful: that's all very catching.... AIMETTE (_Coming up to the bench timidly_.) I should like to sit down too, I'm very tired.... ROSARELLE Mind what you're about, miss!... There's dust enough as it is; I don't want flour into the bargain. ROSELLE What's all this, what's all this? Are we turning up our nose at flour now? ROSARELLE I wasn't addressing my remarks to you, madam. ROSELLE No, but I'm speaking to you. What bread would you eat if you had no flour? ROSARELLE You would do better to tell your father to pay the three quarters' rent that's in arrear. ROSELLE He'll pay his rent when your horrid old miser of a grandfather has seen to those repairs. We've been asking to have them done these last three years. BELLINE Is it the repairs that prevent your father from paying his butcher's bills? ROSELLE Does he owe anything at your shop? BELLINE