Why have you endeavored to tarnish her honor?
why have you wished to kill her?
why did you deliver her over to Goupil's insults ?--Answer!" "How absurd you are, Monsieur Savinien," said Zelie, "to come and ask us the meaning of a thing we think inexplicable.

I bother myself as little about Ursula as I do about the year one.

Since Uncle Minoret died I've not thought of her more than I do of my first tooth.

I've never said one word about her to Goupil, who is, moreover, a queer rogue whom I wouldn't think of consulting about even a dog.

Why don't you speak up, Minoret?
Are you going to let monsieur box your ears in that way and accuse you of wickedness that's beneath you?
As if a man with forty-eight thousand francs a year from landed property, and a castle fit for a prince, would stoop to such things! Get up, and don't sit there like a wet rag!" "I don't know what monsieur means," said Minoret in his squeaking voice, the trembling of which was all the more noticeable because the voice was clear.