“Very true, but I have never had a lover.”
“Never?”
“I have been courted, but to no effect. My heart was ever silent. Possibly my father thought otherwise when I begged him, a month ago, to get me married soon.”
“Very likely, but as you were not in love, why were you in such a hurry?”
“I knew that the Duc d’Elbeuf would soon be coming to town, and that if he found me still single he would oblige me to become the wife of a man I detest, who would have me at any price.”
“Who is this man for whom you have such an aversion?”
“He is one of the duke’s pets, a monster who sleeps with his master.”
“Really! I did not know the duke had such tastes.”
“Oh yes; he is eighty-four, and he thinks himself a woman; he says he must have a husband.”
“That is very funny. And is this aspirant to your hand a handsome man?”