LÉON
It might have cost you a great deal more if he had been ugly! [Mme. de Ronchard rises to go away.] Besides Jean is not only good-looking but he is good. He is not vain, but modest; and he has genius, which is manifesting itself more and more every day. He will certainly attain membership in the Institute. That would please you, would it not? That would be worth more than a simple engineer; and, moreover, every woman finds him charming, except you.
MME. DE RONCHARD
That's the very thing for which I blame him. He is too good and too honest. He has already painted the portraits of a crowd of women, and he will continue to do that. They will be alone with him in his studio for hours at a time, and everybody knows what goes on in those studios.
LÉON
You have been accustomed to go there, my dear Aunt?
MME. DE RONCHARD [dreamily]
Oh, yes. [Corrects herself.] I mean to say, once I went to Horace Vernet's studio.
LÉON
The painter of battle scenes!