"Bon Dieu!"
" - if you take an abonnement. Otherwise, it may well be more."
"And so you go there. Why then - why must you also wash in the morning
and splash water on my floor? It may have to be polished after your
departure. Would you mind asking the Consul, by the way, not to sit on
the bed? It weakens the springs."
Or this:
"Might I beg you, Monsieur, to tread more lightly on the carpet in your
room? I bought it only nine years ago, and it already shows signs of
wear."
"Nine years - that old rag? It must have survived by a miracle."
"I do not ask you to avoid using it. I only beg you will tread as
lightly as possible."
"Carpets are meant to be worn out."
"You would express yourself less forcibly, if you had to pay for them."
"Let us say then: carpets are meant to be trodden on."
"Lightly."
"I am not a fairy, Madame."
"I wish you were, Monsieur."
Thrice already, in a burst of confidence, has she told me the story of
an egg - an egg which rankles in the memory. Some years ago, it seems,
she went to a certain shop (naming it) - a shop she has avoided ever
since - to buy an egg; and paid the full price - yes, the full price - of a
fresh egg. That particular egg was not fresh. So far from fresh was it,
that she experienced considerable difficulty in swallowing it.
