'Society was of much better constitution when the duel was its habitual phlebotomy.'
'He has been the lover of many women.'
'I am afraid that is nothing singular.'
'He is hardly more than an adventurer.'
'He counts his ancestry in unbroken succession from the clays of Dagobert.
'He has nothing but a pignon sur rue in Paris, and a league or two of rocks and sand in Brittany; yet, though so poor, he made money enough by cards and speculation to be for three years the amant en titre of Cochonette.'
Madame Ottilie rose with a little frown.
'I think we will say no more, my dear Baron; the matter is, after all, not yours or mine to decide. Wanda will assuredly do as she likes.'
'But you have so much influence with her.'
'I have none; no one has any: and I think you do not understand her in the least. It may cost her very much to avow to him that she loves him, but once having done that, it will cost her nothing at all to avow it to the world. She is much too proud a woman to care for the world.'