"And I believe with truth. Aunts ought always to feign ignorance of these lovers' weaknesses, and but for that I should boast of the heroic constancy of my nephew. Ah! there he is!—in the stalls!" said Madame de Lormoy who had discovered De Morville.
"Monsieur de Fierval, since Léon will not see me, have the kindness to go to him, and say I am here—this time he shall not escape us."
M. de Fierval, who had been paying his respects to Madame de Lormoy and the princess, instantly quitted the box in obedience to the request of De Morville's aunt.
"But really, madame," said Madame de Hansfeld, with a laugh, when De Fierval had left the box, "I should be quite vexed to catch M. de Morville in a net of this sort, and thus surprise him into an introduction which he may desire to avoid."
"My dear princess, if he has his whims, I have mine; and amongst others, that of being proud of my nephew, and his greatest success would be to acquire your good opinion."
"I have no right to repeat it to any person so nearly connected with you as M. de Morville, only I regret that good opinion should not have the value which you are so kind as to attribute to it."
"Allow me to say that on this point you completely deceive yourself.—But," added Madame de Lormoy, "I most decidedly denounce M. de Hansfeld to you. He appears to me entirely absorbed with Madame Girard's sobieska, and cannot take his eyes off her, unless, indeed, it is that pretty Madame de Brévannes whom M. de Fierval has just named to us."
"And who is really very charming," said the princess, directing her lorgnette with the utmost intrepidity into the box of Brévannes.
M. de Hansfeld did not hear, or pretended not to bear, his wife, and kept his glass fixed on Bertha.
"But," continued Madame de Lormoy, "do you know, princess, that I very much admire M. de Brévannes? From what M. de Fierval told us, he must have evinced great delicacy and generosity in his marriage with a poor girl; and this is so seldom witnessed in our days. After such conduct, it seems to me that people are hardly able to form their opinion of a man's worth. Don't you think so?"