"Permit me a few words."
"Speak."
"Whatever may happen, general, on passing the door of the room, I shall not remember one word of our conversation."
"As you please, count; we have said nothing the whole town might not hear."
"That is true; but others might possibly put a different interpretation on them than mine. There are so many ways of understanding words."
"Oh! But ours were remarkably innocent."
"They were. I trust, general, we shall not part as foes."
"Why should we be so, my dear count? I desire, on the contrary, that the agreeable acquaintance we have renewed this evening may be changed ere long—on your side at least, for on mine it has long been so—into a durable friendship."
"You overwhelm me, general."
"Do I not owe you my life?"