"Certainly."
"I see no objection to being introduced by you to Mlle. de Beaumesnil at a race in the Bois de Boulogne; but do you really think it advisable that the presentation should take place on a day that I am arrayed in the garb of a jockey?"
"But why not? I am sure the costume is extremely becoming to you."
"It seems to me to savour too much of an actor."
"Really, Gerald, you have the most peculiar ideas."
"No, no, my dear mother, it is you who have such ideas, without suspecting it. But, seriously, you can present me to Mlle. de Beaumesnil where you please, when you please, and as you please, either afoot or on horseback,—you are at liberty to choose, you see. But I will not have recourse to the fascinations of a jockey's costume. I don't need them," added Gerald, with a comical affectation of extreme complacency. "I shall dazzle and fascinate Mlle. de Beaumesnil by a host of admirable moral and conjugal qualities."
"Really, Gerald, you are incorrigible. You can not treat even the most important things seriously."
"What does that matter, provided the things are accomplished?"
The conversation between the duchess and her son was interrupted a second time by a valet who announced that the Baron de Ravil wished to see M. le duc on very important business, and that he was now waiting in the apartments of M. le duc.
"Very well," said Gerald, though he was greatly surprised at this visit.