“Yes,” said Marcel, “that’s true. There are peers of France who now dine at Flicoteau’s, but who once could not pay their bills. But,” he added, and winked, “haven’t you seen your unknown gentlemen again?”
“What do you take us for?” answered Mlle. Pinson in a severe and almost offended tone. “You know Blanchette and Rougette, and do you suppose that I——?”
“Very well,” said Marcel, “don’t be angry. But isn’t this a nice state of affairs? Here are three giddy girls, who may not be able to pay their next day’s dinner, and who throw away their money for the sake of mystifying three poor unoffending devils!”
“But why did they invite us to supper?” asked Mlle. Pinson.—“Mimi Pinson.”
Charles Paul de Kock was a novelist and dramatist. A short quotation from A Much Worried Gentleman shows the ubiquitous mother-in-law jest.
THÉOPHILE’S MOTHER-IN-LAW
“Son-in-law, you will offer me your arm; your wife will take her cousin’s.”
“Yes, mother-in-law.”
“Furthermore, when we get to the caterer’s for dinner, you must not whisper to your wife. People might suspect something unrefined.”