"If you were not a dolt, you would avenge me, Lelio!"
"Thanks! I have not been insulted; nor you either, I fancy."
"Oh! I have been mortally insulted, Lelio!"
"I suppose he refused to give you twenty thousand francs' worth of white gloves, and insisted on giving you diamonds worth fifty thousand instead; something like that, no doubt?"
"No, no, Lelio; he wants to marry!"
"Provided that he doesn't want to marry you, that is a most pardonable desire."
"And the most horrible part of it is that he had an idea that he could induce me to consent to his marriage and still retain my good graces. After such an insult, would you believe that he had the audacity to offer me a million, on condition that I would allow him to marry, and that I would remain faithful to him!"
"A million! the devil! that is at least the fortieth million I have known of you refusing, my poor Checchina. The millions you have spurned would be enough to keep the whole royal family!"
"You are always joking, Lelio. The day will come when you will see that, if I had chosen, I might have been a queen like some other women. Are Napoleon's sisters any more beautiful than I am? Have they more talent, more wit, more spirit? Ah! how well I could manage a kingdom!"
"Almost as well as you could keep books by double entry in a business house. Upon my word! you have put on your wrapper wrong side before, and you are wiping tears from your lovely eyes with one of your silk stockings. Put aside these ambitious dreams for a moment, dress yourself, and let us be off."