Ramel
You needn't go on; I understand. You have been reviving Romeo and
Juliet—in the heart of Normandy.
Ferdinand With this difference, that the hereditary hatred which stood between the two lovers of the play was a mere trifle in comparison with the loathing with which the Comte de Grandchamp contemplates the son of the traitor Marcandal!
Ramel Let me see! Mlle. Pauline de Grandchamp will be free in three years; she is rich in her own right—I know this from the Boudevilles. You can easily take her to Switzerland and keep her there until the General's wrath has had time to cool; and then you can make him the respectful apologies required under the circumstances.
Ferdinand Do you think I would have asked your advice if the only difficulty lay in the attainment of this trite and easy solution of the problem?
Ramel
Ah! I see, my dear friend. You have already married your
Gertrude—your angel—who has become to you like all other angels,
after their metamorphoses into a lawful wives.
Ferdinand
'Tis a hundred times worse than that! Gertrude, my dear sir, is now
Madame de Grandchamp.
Ramel
Oh, dear! How is it you've thrust yourself into such a hornets' nest?
Ferdinand In the same way that people always thrust themselves into hornets' nests; that is, with the hope of finding honey there.
Ramel Oh, oh! This is a very serious matter! Now, really, you must conceal nothing from me.
Ferdinand Mlle. Gertrude de Meilhac, educated at St. Denis, without doubt loved me first of all through ambition; she was glad to know that I was rich, and did all she could to gain my attachment with a view to marriage.