“May I ask what you are doing here in this company?”
To which Léontine, with pert gaiety, replied:
“And may I ask what you are doing here in this company?”
“I,” said Papa Bouchard, with dignity, “am here by accident, and by the violence of these young women.”
“Oh, what a fib!” cried Olga. “The old duffer begged us to let him come. We tried to shake him off, but we couldn’t. Isn’t that so, Aglaia and Louise?”
And Aglaia and Louise said it was so.
Papa Bouchard, astounded at such duplicity, glared at them, but the only satisfaction he got was a fillip on the nose from Aglaia and a remark to the effect that he and the truth didn’t live at the same address. Papa Bouchard indignantly turned his back on these traducers and again opened on Léontine.
“I am amazed—amazed at your temerity. What shall I say to Captain de Meneval when I see him, as I shall to-morrow morning?”
“Anything you like,” was Léontine’s laughing answer.
“Léontine de Meneval,” cried Papa Bouchard, much enraged, “do you know me, your guardian and trustee?”