"By no means! by no means! I repeat, my brother confided his wife to my charge. You have insulted her in public, and in the name of decency—"
"Oh, no!" interrupted my uncle; "you are exaggerating! In the first place, my nephew and I were the only persons present; therefore there was no very great harm done. Then you brought the people up by your shouting; consequently it is I who have cause to complain."
"Té! Are you trying to make a fool of me?" exclaimed the Toulonnais, bursting out upon us like a bomb with another explosion. "Do you suppose, then, that I am going down on my knees to thank you for having undressed Jean Bonaffé's wife?"
"Jean Bonaffé's wife? No, no, my good fellow!" briefly replied my uncle.
"Why 'No'?"
"Why, in the first place, because she is actually my own wife!"
"Yours?"
"As I have the pleasure of informing you. And consequently it is I who would be entitled not to be at all pleased by your intervention in the little domestic occurrence which took place just now."
The Toulonnais, for the moment, was struck dumb with astonishment.
"Then, bagasse! who are you?" he asked.