"My child, your answers are very foolish.--If this doesn't go away, I will tell the maid to prepare me an enema of marshmallow."
"Please remember that the maid is getting her dinner ready; she is looking after her kitchen fire, and how do you suppose that she can leave that to make you an enema?"
"I don't care for that; if I am ill, it seems to me that it is more important to take care of me than to get the dinner."
"But, monsieur, we have ten people to dinner, and it's after four o'clock."
"Then, madame, go and prepare it for me yourself."
"Mon Dieu! just for a paltry pain in the stomach! Often it doesn't amount to anything; go--somewhere, monsieur, and it will pass away."
"I shall not go anywhere, madame, because I have no desire to."
"Papa, suppose we should play _Pourceaugnac_?"
"Hold your tongue, my child; you tire me!"
"Dear me, Eolinde!" said Madame Glumeau with a sigh, "why should we play _Pourceaugnac_ on our little stage; we play it often enough in our family, as well as _Le Malade Imaginaire_!"
Monsieur Glumeau was about to reply to his wife when the bell rang.
"Company! company already!" cried stout Lolotte, "and I haven't finished dressing!"
"And my enema, madame! I must have it!" said her husband in an altered voice.
"No doubt it's my brother," replied tall Eolinde in her turn; "it isn't worth while to put ourselves in such a flurry for him!"
But the salon door opened, and Monsieur Dufournelle and his wife appeared.
Monsieur Dufournelle was a stout party of forty-five, with a jovial face which denoted a frank and hearty disposition. His wife, who was hardly thirty, was pretty, had a good figure, and laughed all the time; it is needless to say that she had fine teeth; if they had been ugly she would not have laughed on all occasions.
"Good afternoon, my friends!" said Monsieur Dufournelle, with an "ouf!" which sent the sheets of music scattered over the piano flying about the room. "We have come early; it's bad form, but we don't care for that!--You are all well, my dear friends?"
"Very well--extremely well! It is so nice of you to come early!" said Madame Glumeau, dissembling a slight grimace.
"I remarked to my husband," rejoined the lady with the fine teeth, "that perhaps it would be discourteous for us to come before five o'clock; but he replied that we didn't stand on ceremony with you."