"I think her very generous."
"Very generous, marquis? What do you mean by that?"
"Why, with her fortune, your ward would have a perfect right to be as ugly and humpbacked as I am. But does she really possess many admirable traits of character?"
"I have known her so short a time, I scarcely know how to answer you."
"Why this reticence? You must feel sure that I did not come to ask your ward's hand in marriage."
"Who knows?" retorted the baroness, laughing.
"I know, and I have told you."
"Seriously, marquis, I am positive that at this very moment a hundred matrimonial projects have already been formed—"
"Against Mlle. de Beaumesnil?"
"'Against' is very suggestive. But one moment, marquis. I wish to be perfectly frank with you."