"My poor nephew, listen to me a moment. Have you a cousin?"
"A cousin? No, I have no cousin. Oh, you won't catch me there. I have no cousin, either male or female."
"But I am your uncle, am I not?"
"Yes; you are my uncle, of course, though you seem to have forgotten the fact this morning."
"Then if I had a daughter, she would be your cousin; but as you have no cousin, I can have no daughter."
"You are right, of course. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Ems last summer with her mother; I love her; I have reason to believe that she is not indifferent to me, and I have the honor to ask you for her hand in marriage."
"Whose hand, may I ask?"
"Your daughter's hand."
"Just hear him," Morlot said to himself. "Dr. Auvray must certainly be very clever if he succeeds in curing him. I am willing to pay him six thousand francs a year for board and treatment. Six thousand francs from thirty thousand leaves twenty-four thousand. How rich I shall be! Poor Francis!"
He seated himself again, and picked up a book that chanced to be lying on a table near him.