“Oh! I beg your pardon—allow me to stop you right there. I must tell you that my name is no longer Chamoureau, or, at least, I no longer answer to that name.”
“The deuce! have you taken your wife’s name, pray? are you Monsieur Thélénie?”
“No, my name is De Belleville now.”
“What does this new farce mean?”
“It means that my wife, my superb wife, cannot endure the name of Chamoureau; it’s a weakness of hers, but to be agreeable to her, I have taken the name of the place where I was born—Belleville—and we are known by no other name now—Monsieur and Madame de Belleville.”
“Gad! that’s another good one! But after all, you may call yourself Romulus if you choose; it’s all one to me, absolutely.”
“By the way, Freluchon, that isn’t all; my wife, who is very affable with me, although——”
“Although it doesn’t appear?”
“No, I mean, although—although she doesn’t mean to be—has authorized me to invite you and your friend Edmond Didier to come to see us.”
“Ha! ha! ha! worse and worse!”