In it, there was question of the marriage of Mlle. Eugénie, where the father jestingly says: “My gentilhomme, is that all you are?
“Parchment and blazonry will never open my house.
“If someone really tender, Sings thee songs in the air, Let me hear them For thy Father sees clear And I will say if there is reason That he should enter here. “Should some excellent young man See heaven in thy eyes, Say to him ‘Beautiful astronomer, Speak to that good old man, He is my father, and there is reason That he should choose his son-in-law.’ “If he has some talent What matters his fortune? Judge, writer, soldier, Esprit, virtue, sweet reason— These are the titles valued here.”
“The result of all this was that Beaumarchais was deluged,” says Loménie, “with the most singular demands in marriage for his daughter. Here it is from a nobleman, but one who makes no point of his blazon, who despises the fortune which he has not, who esteems only virtue, and who aspires to marry Mlle. Eugénie and her dot; there, from a father, perfectly unknown to Beaumarchais, who begs him to keep the daughter for his son, still in college; farther on it is a captain, who has only his sword, but who is worthy of being a Marshal of France. Politely to turn aside this avalanche of virtuous and disinterested suitors, the father of Eugénie wrote a letter which, with slight modifications, serves him for all, and of which the following is a sample:
“Paris, May 21, 1791.
“Although your letter, Monsieur, appears to have its origin in a simple jest, since it is serious and honest, I owe you a reply.
“You have been deceived regarding my daughter. Scarcely fourteen years old, she is far from the time when I will allow her to choose a master, reserving for myself in this only, the right to advise. Perhaps you are quite ignorant of the exact situation. I have only lately taken my daughter from the convent; the joy of her return drew from my indolence a song, which after having been sung at my table, went the rounds. The tone bonhomme which I there took, joined to the jest of her future establishment, has made many persons think that I already thought of her settlement.
“But may I be preserved from engaging her before the time when her own heart will give her a consciousness of what it all means, and Monsieur, this will be an affair of years, not of months.
“What the song says jestingly, however, will certainly be my rule to enlighten her young heart. Fortune touches me less than talents and virtue, because I wish her to be happy....