"My dear baron, excuse me, but if I had requested the honour of an interview, you would have refused it, would you not?"
"Most assuredly I should, monsieur, for—"
"So I very wisely decided to take you by surprise. Now do me the favour to sit down, and let us talk this matter over like a couple of friends."
"Friends? You have the audacity to say that, monsieur; you, who ever since I first had the misfortune to know you, have fairly hounded me with sneers and sarcasms which—which I have returned in kind," added the baron, with true parliamentary aplomb. "A friend? you, monsieur, who have just outdone yourself by—"
"My dear baron," said the hunchback, interrupting M. de la Rochaiguë afresh, "did you ever see an amusing comedy by Scribe, called 'A Woman's Hatred'?"
"I am unable to see any connection—"
"But you will, my dear baron. In this little play, a young and pretty woman seems to pursue with the bitterest animosity a young man, whom in her secret heart she adores."
"And what of that, may I ask?"
"Well, my dear baron, with this slight difference, viz., that you are not a young man, and I am not a pretty woman who adores you, our relative positions are exactly the same as those of the hero and heroine in Scribe's little comedy."
"Once more, monsieur, I—"