“Mademoiselle is a fairy,” he said, whispering mysteriously. Whereupon I told her not to mind his badinage; and she, on her part, evinced a fund of genuine French scepticism: denominating Mr. Rochester “ un vrai menteur ,” 46 and assuring him that she made no account whatever of his “ contes de fée ,” 47 and that “ du reste, il n’y avait pas de fées, et quand même il y en avait: ” 48 she was sure they would never appear to him, nor ever give him rings, or offer to live with him in the moon.