"He is a scholar, a philologist; he manages everything in the château."
"And eats everything too, I should say."
"He knows ten tongues."[10]
"Ah! in that case, I am not surprised that he eats so fast!"
"Who was it who arranged the guests in this way?" inquired Mademoiselle Cornélie; "it seems to me that it’s a wretched arrangement."
"It was my librarian who undertook to do it; but I told him to place me beside you, otherwise the whole thing would have seemed dull and wretched to me.—You drink nothing! here is a certain burgundy——"
"Oh! the idea! Do you expect a woman to drink, and to be a connoisseur in wine?"
"Mademoiselle is right," said Férulus, filling his glass; "wine is not suited to the fair sex; Mecenius killed his wife because she had drunk wine; in the time of Romulus, a woman having broken the seals of a cellar, her kinsmen condemned her to die of starvation!"
"Oh! for heaven’s sake, let us alone with your Romans, monsieur!" said Madame Gérard; "they were impertinent creatures if they prevented their wives from doing as they chose!—Give me some wine, Monsieur Gérard."
"That woman has a very masculine tone," said Eudoxie, turning to Edouard.—"Uncle Mignon, please fetch me my handkerchief, which I left in the salon."