“Because you have kept other tests—still, to be sure, you are a woman, and a very handsome one besides.”
“An old grandmother, with grey hair!”
“And still more upright and more charming than a thousand of the most admired younger beauties.”
“You are trying to convert my pride into vanity, in my old age.”
“No, no! I was only looking at you with an examining eye, as our talk led me to do, and I remembered that Sabina had lamented that handsome Julia was not looking well. But where is there another woman of your age with such a carriage, such unwrinkled features, so clear a brow, such deep kind eyes, such beautifully-polished arms—”
“Be quiet,” exclaimed his wife. “You make me blush.”
“And may I not be proud that a grandmother, who is a Roman, as my wife is, can find it so easy to blush? You are quite different from other women.”
“Because you are different from other men.”
“You are a flatterer; since all our children have left us, it is as if we were newly married again.”
“Ah! the apple of discord is removed.”