"Gad! that's true, you're right. Well, yes, I have a plan of my own."
"For my future, uncle?" asked Constance, in a trembling voice.
"Yes, for your marriage, in fact."
"Marriage! can it be possible? Oh! uncle——"
And the sweet girl looked up at the general, with appealing eyes already filled with tears.
"Come, come, calm yourself, morbleu!" exclaimed the general, taking her hand. "Here you are up in arms, as if I proposed to make you unhappy. Don't you want to marry?"
"Oh! I don't say that, uncle."
"Well, then, why this terror when I tell you that I think of giving you a husband?"
"Why, because I want—I don't want——"
"Because you want and don't want! Deuce take it! why can't a woman ever say what she means! Why don't you tell me at once that you don't want to marry anyone but Frédéric?"