“You give her to me? that’s all right, so far as it goes. But unfortunately she isn’t at your disposal.”
“Can it be that Croque has lost all his imagination, ingenuity, audacity? Make a conquest of that girl, I tell you, and on the day that you furnish me with proof that you have succeeded,—that she has yielded,—I’ll give you three thousand francs!”
“Three thousand francs and such a sweet little phiz to win! I’ll do it or forfeit my name; not Schtapelmerg, but my real name.”
“What a brazen air that woman has!” said Agathe, when the brother and sister had disappeared. “She spoke to you just as if you were alone; she didn’t condescend even to bow to us. Shall you go to her house?”
“Oh no! no, indeed! I assure you that I haven’t the slightest intention of doing so.”
“Why, you are unreasonable, Agathe,” said Honorine; “if Monsieur Edmond is intimate with this lady’s husband, why do you wish him not to go to their house?”
“I knew Chamoureau before he married that woman, madame; now——”
“Chamoureau? why, that is the name of the real estate agent to whom we went to buy this house, and who would never have done anything about it, I fancy, but for you.”
“Just so, madame; he is the very man, who, after inheriting twenty thousand francs a year, married Madame Sainte-Suzanne.”
“What! he is the husband of that magnificent amazon? But in that case her name is Madame Chamoureau.”