"Indeed! and how?"
"Why," said Eugenie, with a smile, "he wanted a loan, poor man, and I could therefore impose conditions by way of interest. But I also managed to conciliate him to the proposition, by representing that, if the young man were good-looking, he might, himself, with our connections, &c., form an advantageous marriage; and that in such a case, if the father treated him now justly and kindly, he would naturally partake with the father whatever benefits the marriage might confer."
"Ah! you are an excellent diplomatist, Eugenie; and you turn people's heads by always acting from your heart. Hush! here comes the Vicomte"
"A delightful ball," said Monsieur de Vaudemont, approaching the hostess. "Pray, has that young lady yonder, in the pink dress, any fortune? She is pretty—eh? You observe she is looking at me—I mean at us!"
"My dear cousin, what a compliment you pay to marriage! You have had two wives, and you are ever on the qui vive for a third!"
"What would you have me do?—we cannot resist the overtures of your bewitching sex. Hum—what fortune has she?"
"Not a sou; besides, she is engaged."
"Oh! now I look at her, she is not pretty—not at all. I made a mistake.
I did not mean her; I meant the young lady in blue."
"Worse and worse—she is married already. Shall I present you?"
"Ah, Monsieur de Vaudemont," said Madame d'Anville; "have you found out a new bureau de mariage?"