"Ah! my historical knowledge is extensively widened--but if I only knew to whom to make love!"
"Il y avait une fois un séducteur qui cherchait de l'ouvrage," remarks Eugene.
"Je crois Men qu'il cherchait!" yawns Pistasch. "Really, it is not only on Mimi's and morality's account that I do not dare try it with the Lanzberg--but she is so magnificently prudish! Now I do not object to a little prudishness, that is piquant, but quite so much! Recently she, for really nothing at all----"
"Ah, really, for nothing at all?" repeats Scirocco, looking sharply at his cousin.
"Well, not exactly for nothing at all," the latter admits, grumblingly, "but on my word, for a very slight cause, she gave me a dissertation upon her dignity, and that she felt bound to keep the honorable name which she bears spotless."
"She is quite right," declares Sempaly, sharply.
Pistasch laughs rudely. "Well, Rudi, between ourselves, it is nevertheless a little droll to think so much of this name, to boast of its spotlessness--hm!"
Rhoeden displays the indifference of a man who knows that the conversation is upon delicate subjects, and retires to a window recess, where he unfolds a letter. A servant enters and reports that "The Countess begs the Baron to come to the music-room," whereupon Rhoeden vanishes.
Scarcely has the door closed behind him when Scirocco bursts out violently: "You are a muttonhead, Pistasch; the little banker is a hundred times cleverer than you."
"He needs it," says Pistasch, coolly.