“It is certain that if you knew her thoroughly, you might not be so fond of her; for instance, I love wine, I confess; I always know when it’s good, but I can’t always tell what province it comes from.”
“And I love women, I appreciate their charms, I admire their beauties; but their hearts—Ah! if they exhibited them to the naked eye, the prettiest ones wouldn’t always be preferred.”
“For all that, lieutenant, if I were you, I’d be a little shy of those affected airs, and those voices always pitched in a falsetto key, which never come from the chest; it seems to me that a person can’t be talking honestly when she always acts as if she was singing. I would be on my guard too against fainting fits, tears and stifled sighs.”
“Why, my dear Bertrand, when the tears are shed by lovely eyes, when the voice comes from a pretty mouth, when the person who pretends to faint displays a charming body, a shapely figure, is it so easy to resist? No, one must surrender—with liberty to repent later.”
“That is true. In fact, that’s just like me: to find out whether a wine’s good, I must taste it; and it’s never the bad one that a man does himself harm with. It’s a pity that this meeting didn’t happen the day before yesterday, before you paid the note for two thousand francs!”
“Let’s not think any more about that!”
“No; only let it be a lesson for the future.”
“Bertrand, when you meet Madame Saint-Edmond, I desire you to be as polite to her as before!”
“Oh! never fear, monsieur, I’m a Frenchman, and an old soldier knows the respect due to the sex. Parbleu! if one must needs look askance at everybody who hasn’t got the countersign, one would have to look cross-eyed too often. At all events, lieutenant, that makes one less, and we shall be able to straighten out our cash-box a little, and——”
“Oh, yes! I am fully determined to settle down. Destival has spoken to me about another excellent investment. I will go to see my notary to-morrow and turn my securities into cash.—Oh! by the way, you will pay a small bill for furniture that will be sent here within a few days.”