"You are delightful! Pardieu! you could ask for money. Let me give you some of this Château-Léoville.—It's cool and sweet—it will refresh your ideas. Go on, I beg."
"My parents died, and from what they left me in furniture, jewels, and plate, I had an income of twelve hundred francs."
"A mere trifle! that's not enough to pay one's tailor. To be sure, there's the alternative of not paying him at all."
"I was then seventeen; I didn't know just what business to embrace."
"And, pending your decision, you embraced all the pretty girls who came to hand. I know all about that."
"Oh! no, monsieur; I was very virtuous; I have never been what is called a lady's man."
"So much the worse, young man; so much the worse! There's nothing like women for training the young. You may say that they overtrain them sometimes. But think of the experience they acquire! I might cite myself as an example; but we haven't come to me yet. Go on, my young friend—for I am your friend. Although Aristotle said: 'O my friends, there are no friends!' I maintain that there are. And that's simply a play upon words by the Greek philosopher, to whom, had I been Philip, I would not have intrusted the education of my son Alexander, because of that one assertion.—But I beg your pardon; I am listening."
"Luckily, I had an uncle, Monsieur Grandcourt, my mother's brother. He took me into his family. He is rather an original, but kind and obliging. He is not an old man: only about forty-eight now."
"So much the worse, so much the worse! You certainly have hard luck in the matter of inheritances. Is this uncle of yours rich?"
"Not rich perhaps, but very comfortably fixed, I fancy."