"You are too fine for us mon brave.

In what country, I should wonder, does one learn such dainty ceremony as that ?" "Where should one learn courtesies, if not in France ?" he answered wearily.

He had danced with this girl-soldier the night before at a guinguette ball, seeing her for the first time, for it was almost the first time he had been in the city since the night when he had thrown the dice, and lost ten Napoleons and the Bedouins to Claude de Chanrellon; but his thoughts were far from her in this moment.
"Ouf! You have learnt carte and tierce with your tongue!" cried Cigarette, provoked to receive no more compliment than that.

From generals and staff officers, as from drummers and trumpeters, she was accustomed to flattery and wooing, luscious as sugared chocolate, and ardent as flirtation, with a barrack flavor about it, commonly is; she would, as often as not, to be sure, finish it with the butt-end of her pistol, or the butt-end of some bit of stinging sarcasm, but still, for all that, she liked it, and resented its omission.

"They say you are English, but I don't believe it; you speak too soft, and you sound the double L's too well.