“Everybody is certain that you know all about it.”
“Then they are impudent fools, like you. Get out of my house this instant and wait for me, I will be with you in a quarter of an hour.”
So saying, I took the poor chevalier by the shoulders, and giving him sundry shakes I turned him out of the room. He came back and called to the lady to come, too, but she rose and tried to quiet me.
“You ought to be more considerate towards a lover,” said she, “for he would marry my daughter now, even after what she has done.”
“I am aware of the fact, madam, and I have no doubt that his courtship was one of the chief reasons which made your daughter resolve to leave her home, for she hated him even more than she hated the fermier-general.”
“She has behaved very badly, but I promise not to say anything more about marrying her. But I am sure you know all about it, as you gave her fifty louis, without which she could not have done anything.”
“Nay, not so.”
“Do not deny it, sir; here is the evidence—a small piece of your letter to her.”
She gave me a scrap of the letter I had sent the daughter, with the fifty louis for her brother. It contained the following lines,
“I hope that these wretched louis will convince you that I am ready to sacrifice everything, my life if need be, to assure you of my affection.”