"Faith! messieurs, you have guessed right!" replied Edward. "Yes, I have a very violent fancy. Deuce take me! I believe I am really in love!"
"Really! Is she so very pretty?"
"She's better than pretty; she is piquant—enchanting!"
"Did you see her at the Bouffes?" inquired the simpering Lamberlong.
"At the Bouffes? Oh! she never goes there, I can promise you that!"
The red-haired worthy made a wry face.
"A woman who never goes to the Bouffes!" he murmured; "mon Dieu! what sort of a creature can she be?"
"I say, Edward, what style of woman is your new passion?"
"What style? Oh! the most modest that you can imagine; but I adapt Boileau's verse to women:
"'Tous les genres sont bons, hors le genre ennuyeux.'"[I]