"See, Celestine, thirty-five francs a month; the
master’s table; the master’s room; a will; does that
suit you? Answer me."
"We will see later. But, while waiting, take another."
And I run away that I may not blow into his face the tempest of laughter that is roaring in my throat.
I have, then, only the embarrassment of choice.
The captain or Joseph? ‘To live as a servant-
mistress, with all the contingencies that such a
position involves,—that is, to remain still at the
mercy of a stupid, coarse, changeable man, and
dependent upon a thousand disagreeable circumstances and a thousand prejudices; or else to
marry, and thus acquire a sort of regular and respected liberty, in a situation free from the control
of others, and liberated from the caprice of events?
Here at last a portion of my dream promises to be
realized.
It is very evident that I should have liked a realization on a grander scale. But, when I think how few chances present themselves, in general, in the existence of a woman like me, I must congratulate myself that something is coming to me at last other than this eternal and monotonous tossing back and forth from one house to another, from one bed to another, from one face to another face.
