You are comfortable there to work ?" "Perfectly so, madam, I could not be better." "Are you very busy just now ?" "Well, yes, madam, rather busy." "Ah! I am sorry." "Why so ?" "Because, I had an idea.

I thought of asking you to accompany me to the forest.

The gentlemen will be nearly there when I am ready to start again--and I cannot very well go on alone so far." While lisping this somewhat confused explanation, the Little Countess had an expression at once sly and embarrassed, which greatly fortified the sentiment of distrust which the awkwardness of her entrance had excited in my mind.
"Madam," I said, "you really distress me.

I shall regret all my life to have missed the delightful occasion you are kind enough to offer me; but it is indispensable that to-morrow's mail shall carry off this report, which the minister is expecting with extreme impatience." "You are afraid to lose your situation ?" "I have none to lose, madam." "Well, then, let the minister wait, for my sake; it will flatter me." "That is impossible, madam." She assumed a very dry tone: "But, that is really strange! What! you are not more anxious to be agreeable to me ?" "Madam," I replied rather dryly in my turn, "I should be extremely anxious to be agreeable to you, but I am not at all anxious to help you win your wager." I threw out that insinuation somewhat at random, resting it upon some recollections and some slight indications which you may have been able to collect here and there in the course of my narrative.

Nevertheless, I had hit it exactly.