Ah! An unpaid apprentice. How very academic of you, Mademoiselle Professor Slave-Driver. I assume you will give him a good recommendation, when his work this term is complete?

[As they come into the cellar, Val--for all his lightness and cavalierness--begins to look about with interest, marking the furnishings and the papers and anything else there might be to see. He goes for the table straightaway when they have quit the stairs, and picks up whatever bit of paper is closets to him.]

Your handwriting is remarkable.