"True enough, M. Ramon decided to come to Paris very suddenly."
"Is my uncle in Paris?"
"Ah! Florestan, what strange things happen in this world—"
"What do you mean?"
"And to think that I should be the one to announce it, after the conversation we have just had together!—It is, indeed, most strange!"
"But what in the deuce have you to announce? And what is there so strange about it?"
"I have told you that my father had arranged a marriage between your cousin and myself."
"Yes, what then?"
"Being in ignorance of my refusal, and wishing to hasten a marriage he desired as ardently as my father, your uncle and his daughter left Dreux yesterday and arrived this morning—"
"In Paris. Well, what of it? Why this hesitation and embarrassment on your part, my dear Louis?"