"Sir, I will not quit Paris!"
"Then, madame, you prefer that I should speak out?"
"You have used that threat very frequently, sir. For the love of Heaven speak plainly, and I shall then know what you have to reproach me with."
"You rely too much on the respect I have for my name and my dread of a public scandal. Take care, and do not drive me to extremities. Be advised—go—depart!"
"To speak plainly, sir, I am not your dupe; you wish to alarm me—compel me to leave Paris—and wherefore? in order that your departure may also be supposed to be taken also, and that you may thus more easily preserve your incognito."
"What mean you, madame?"
"And that you may, thanks to this incognito, be favourably received by Pierre Raimond, the father of Madame de Brévannes."
"Madame, take care!"
"Of Madame de Brévannes, of whom you are enamoured, and whom you so often meet at her father's house."
At these words the prince remained struck with amaze, his pale face became purple, and after a moment's silence he exclaimed,—