"Yes, Louise; it was a bad bargain I made."
"Nonsense!" Michael said, with the utmost seriousness, "well, there is a way of arranging the matter."
"Do you think so?"
"Zounds, I am sure of it."
"I should like to know it, for I confess to you that she has completely upset my ideas; the confounded girl, with her bird's voice, and sly smile, turns me about like a whirligig: by Heaven, I am the most unfortunate of men—tell me your plan, brother."
"Why, sell her to me."
Belle Tête suddenly turned pale at this blunt offer, which, indeed, settled everything; but which, though he did not suspect it, Michael only made in a joke, and to try him; he frowned, and angrily replied in a voice trembling with emotion, and striking the table with his fist—
"Zounds, mate, that is a magnificent way you have found, but the fiend take me if I accept it; no, no, whatever sorrow the little witch causes me—have I not told you that she has bewitched me?—I love her! Blood and thunder, do you understand that?"
"Of course I understand it; but come, reassure yourself, I have not the slightest intention of depriving you of your Louise; what should I do with a wife? Besides, what I have seen of other men's love affairs, does not offer me the slightest inducement to try it on my own account."
"All right," Belle Tête replied, reassured by this frank declaration, "that is speaking like a man; and, after all, you are right, brother; although I would not consent for anything in the world to part with my Louise, still, after the experience I have of her, if the bargain was to be made again, hang me if I would purchase her."