"I have good reason for it. Monsieur de la Bérinière fought a duel the day before yesterday, and was badly wounded; a little more and they'd have killed him for me!"
"Mon Dieu! with whom did he fight, in heaven's name?"
"Do you ask me that? You know well enough; indeed, it's easy enough to guess."
"I certainly cannot guess."
"Who but Gustave, in his rage, because I preferred the count to him?"
"Gustave? why, that is impossible. He left Paris a week ago; he came to say good-bye to us, and Monsieur de Raincy, who has just come from England, met him there."
"Is it possible that it wasn't Gustave? Then who could it have been—unless it was that tall swashbuckler who fought with Auguste?"
"Yes, it must have been he."
"That's it! that fellow seems to have the very devil in him! As soon as I am married, or when someone thinks of marrying me, he appears with his long sword. Why, it's a perfect outrage! Ah! that Monsieur Cherami! And I have been so polite to him, too—asked him to come to see me!"
"What! you asked him to come to see you? A man who had fought with your husband?"