"Does not Miss Arabella please you?" MacNabb would say to him.
"Oh, major, she is charming!" cried Paganel,—"a thousand times too charming for me; and, if I must tell you, would please me better if she were less so. I should like to find a defect."
"Be easy," answered the major; "she has more than one. The most perfect woman always has her share. Well, then, Paganel, are you decided?"
"I do not dare."
"But, my learned friend, why do you hesitate?"
"I am unworthy of her!" was the geographer's invariable reply.
At last, one day, driven desperate by the irrepressible major, Paganel confessed to him, under the pledge of secrecy, a peculiarity that would facilitate his identification, if the police should ever be on his track!
"Bah!" exclaimed the major.
"It is as I tell you," persisted Paganel.
"What matter, my worthy friend?"