I ask only to be of service to you.

Your father has made Dumay keeper of the hen-roost, take Butscha to watch outside,--poor Butscha, who doesn't ask for anything, not so much as a bone." "Well, I've give you a trial," said Modeste, whose strongest desire was to get rid of so clever a watcher.

"Please go at once to all the hotels in Graville and in Havre, and ask if a gentleman has arrived from England named Monsieur Arthur--" "Listen to me, mademoiselle," said Butscha, interrupting Modeste respectfully.

"I will go and take a walk on the seashore, for you don't want me to go to church to-day; that's what it is." Modeste looked at her dwarf with a perfectly stupid astonishment.
"Mademoiselle, you have wrapped your face in cotton-wool and a silk handkerchief, but there's nothing the matter with you; and you have put that thick veil on your bonnet to see some one yourself without being seen." "Where did you acquire all that perspicacity ?" cried Modeste, blushing.
"Moreover, mademoiselle, you have not put on your corset; a cold in the head wouldn't oblige you to disfigure your waist and wear half a dozen petticoats, nor hide your hands in these old gloves, and your pretty feet in those hideous shoes, nor dress yourself like a beggar-woman, nor--" "That's enough," she said.

"How am I to be certain that you will obey me ?" "My master is obliged to go to Sainte-Adresse.