“Didn’t you overhear a word?”
“Not a single word.”
“Well, my dear fellow, he was asking me to lend him money.”
“Asking you to lend him money?”
“Yes, my dear fellow; on my word, that did seem a little bit hasty on his part, I admit.”
“Hasty! you are very generous, monsieur le marquis! It was much worse than that.”
“In the first place, I don’t know him well enough to——”
“And even if you did know him very well—whoever heard of lending money to a man who is ruined, and who has just told you so?—I know him better than you do, and I wouldn’t lend him.”
“In the second place, it’s the very worst form to borrow money at a third person’s house.”
“It’s shocking form!”