“Be it so,” replied she, “but you will go.”
“But I tell you I will not go,” he rejoined.
“Yes, yes, I tell you,” said she; “you will go.”
“But,” replied he, “this is admirable. You say M. de Saint-Simon is quite right, why then should I go?”
“Because I wish it,” said she.
“Very good,” replied he, “and why do you wish I should go—what madness is this?”
“I wish it because—,” said she.
“Oh, because,” replied he, “that’s no reason; say why you wish it.”
(After some dispute) “You obstinately desire then to know? Are you not aware that the Abbe Dubois and I quarreled four days ago, and that we have not yet made it up. He mixes in everything. He will know that you have been with me to-night. If to-morrow you do not go to his consecration, he will not fail to believe it is I who have hindered you; nothing will take this idea out of his head; he will never pardon me; he will undermine in a hundred ways my credit with you, and finish by embroiling us. But I don’t wish such a thing to happen, and for that reason you must go to his consecration, although M. de Saint-Simon is right.”
Thereupon ensued a feeble debate, then resolution and promise to go, which was very faithfully kept.