It is all over with us.
We may as well say adieu to Mademoiselle Grandet. Eugenie will belong
to the dandy. Unless this cousin is enamoured of some Parisian woman,
your son Adolphe will find another rival in--"
"Not at all, monsieur l'abbe. This young man cannot fail to see that
Eugenie is a little fool,--a girl without the least freshness. Did you
notice her to-night? She was as yellow as a quince."
"Perhaps you made the cousin notice it?"
"I did not take the trouble--"
"Place yourself always beside Eugenie, madame, and you need never take
the trouble to say anything to the young man against his cousin; he
will make his own comparisons, which--"
"Well, he has promised to dine with me the day after to-morrow."
"Ah! if you only _would_, madame--" said the abbe.
"What is it that you wish me to do, monsieur l'abbe? Do you mean to
offer me bad advice? I have not reached the age of thirty-nine,
without a stain upon my reputation, thank God! to compromise myself
now, even for the empire of the Great Mogul. You and I are of an age
when we both know the meaning of words. For an ecclesiastic, you
certainly have ideas that are very incongruous. Fie! it is worthy of
Faublas!"
"You have read Faublas?"
"No, monsieur l'abbe; I meant to say the _Liaisons dangereuses_."
"Ah! that book is infinitely more moral," said the abbe, laughing.
"But you make me out as wicked as a young man of the present day; I
only meant--"
"Do you dare to tell me you were not thinking of putting wicked things
into my head? Isn't it perfectly clear? If this young man--who I admit
is very good-looking--were to make love to me, he would not think of
his cousin.
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