[People very regularly hate Val, especially at first meeting. He therefore remains completely unfazed by this comment, when Wysteria makes it, and is only still slightly sulky when they are received in the narrow little foyer.

Slightly sulky is good. He only snorts a little when Bastien supplies what they are. It is in a small way worse than being a gentleman gambler--at least a gentlemen gambler might have a very interesting story, whereas a hanger-on relies upon the story of others, or features very distantly and altogether uninterestingly in the background of the story of others--but on the other hand, it is better than being a valet, who is so thoroughly in the background one might forget entirely that he is there.]

Hangers-on, [he agrees, begrudgingly,] who very much require the key that the mademoiselle has requested, if it would not be a terrible inconvenience. In fact I myself do not care very much either way whether or not the key is received, [in case that was a question, that he might care; this he dismisses with a little flick of his wrist,] but the mademoiselle requires the key, so we require the key, and must pretend at a certain urgency for the fulfillment of this task. Our fates are after all intrinsically entwined with hers.