“What is the sense of this new mania of theirs? Why won’t they have anyone come near them now? ”
“What? Won’t they have anyone come near them? ”
“ And they won’t let anyone touch them! ”
“Really? Have you noticed that they won’t let anyone touch them ? That is certainly odd!”
“Oh, so you admit it! And high time, too! And then, they walk backward !”
“ Backward! You have seen our managers walk backward ? Why, I thought that only crabs walked backward!”
“Don’t laugh, Gabriel; don’t laugh!”
“I’m not laughing,” protested Gabriel, looking as solemn as a judge.
“Perhaps you can tell me this, Gabriel, as you’re an intimate friend of the management: When I went up to M. Richard, outside the foyer, during the Garden interval, with my hand out before me, why did M. Moncharmin hurriedly whisper to me, ‘Go away! Go away! Whatever you do, don’t touch M. le directeur !’ Am I supposed to have an infectious disease?”
“It’s incredible!”
“And, a little later, when M. de La Borderie went up to M. Richard, didn’t you see M. Moncharmin fling himself between them and hear him exclaim, ‘ M. l’ambassadeur , I entreat you not to touch M. le directeur ’?”
“It’s terrible! … And what was Richard doing meanwhile?”