"You see, my too dear M. Porquin," said Saint-Herem, as he turned to depart, "you see there are still a few honest men and women left in the world. It is useless to hope that this discovery will serve either as an example or a lesson for you, however. You are too set in your ways ever to reform; but it is some comfort to know of your double defeat."
"Ah, my dear Florestan," remarked Louis, as they left the house, "thanks to you, I am much less miserable. The fact that Mariette treated this villain with the scorn he deserved is some comfort, even though she has decided to break her engagement with me."
"Did she tell you so?"
"No, she wrote me to that effect, or rather she got some other person to do it for her."
"What, she got some other person to write such a thing as that for her!"
"You will sneer, perhaps, but the poor girl I love can neither read nor write."
"How fortunate you are! You will at least escape such epistles as I have been receiving from a pretty little perfumer I took away from a rich but miserly old banker. I have been amusing myself by showing her a little of the world,—it is so pleasant to see people happy,—but I have not been able to improve her grammar, and such spelling! It is of the antediluvian type. Mother Eve must have written in much the same fashion. But if your Mariette can neither read nor write, how do you know but her secretary may have distorted the facts?"
"With what object?"
"I don't know, I am sure. But why don't you have an explanation with her? You will know exactly how you stand, then."
"But she implored me, both for the sake of her peace of mind and her future, to make no attempt to see her again."