“With my future bride, it will be perfectly proper!”
“But propriety—good morals!”
“Propriety and good morals cannot be offended.”
“But the custom!”
“Your customs are beginning to be very irksome to me; and if you don’t obtain me the interview I desire, I am quite capable of decamping some fine morning and leaving you with my intended and her aunt and all the gossip of the town on your hands!”
“Oh! mon Dieu! the reckless fellow! he makes me shudder!—Well, I’ll try to arrange it. After all, you’re to be married in a week, and—and—in fact—— But I have an idea: I will go to Madame de Pontchartrain and ask her permission to take her niece with me to make some purchases that are necessary for her wedding; she can’t refuse me; then I’ll bring Pélagie here, and you can talk to her at your leisure.”
“That’s a happy idea!”
“But I trust, my dear, that you will behave yourself, and——”
“Don’t be alarmed! Really, you have a very low opinion of me.”
“The fact that I am going to fetch your intended proves the contrary.”