"There are ladies and ladies!"
"Well, let's drop it.—I will be brief: my dear friend, I have just done you a very great service."
"You have! how so?"
"I have just come from Monsieur Mirotaine's, where I dined."
"Mon Dieu! you make me shudder!"
"Nay, rather rejoice! I had seen the wardrobe dealer, and told her that I had a very rich count who wanted to marry and who would not ask for any dowry."
"I asked you not to play any wretched practical joke."
"True; but I didn't listen to you, and it's well I didn't; for everything went off as if it was on wheels."
"Whom did you present as the man who wanted a wife?"
"Someone who can't refuse me anything, who plays whatever part I assign to him, because I know a certain secret. Ha! ha! ha! Poor Miflorès-Seringat! or Seringat-Miflorès!—There's a pigeon whom Providence placed in my hand most opportunely!"