"_Mordié!_ yes, I like it better. Come, abandon the worthless cause you are trying to plead; condemn Master Julien's madness and disloyalty without reserve; let me punish him as I think best." "But what makes you think that Master Julien----" "Oh! don't try to lie any more," cried Monsieur Antoine, springing to his feet as if impelled by the quivering of his whole irritable and passionate little being; "it isn't becoming in you to lie, you know! And then it's no use, for I tell you I heard everything, and as I'm no fool I concluded--Julien has taken a fancy to you, and the rascal would tell you so if he dared!" "What do you say, Monsieur Thierry?" "I say--I say things as they are. Mademoiselle de Meuil was as proud as you can possibly be; my brother André told her fairy stories, and he ended by making her listen to him. All men and all women are made of the same stuff, I tell you! There's only one question of any importance now: does Julien take your fancy, yes or no?" "Monsieur Thierry, if I did not know that you have a kind heart, your wretched manners would disgust me! Be kind enough to adopt a different tone, or I shall leave you." "Ah! you propose to be angry, do you? Your pride has taken hold of you again, and you are going to turn your back on me? Why? All this is no concern of yours! Julien did the crazy thing, it is for him to pay for it." "No, Monsieur Thierry, that is my place. My bungling caused the accident; if I had not admired and praised the flower too enthusiastically--He felt obliged to offer it to me--courtesy----" "Poor reasons, poor reasons, my fair lady! The rascal knew perfectly well that I would have thrown the flower, the plant, the garden, aye, and the gardener to boot, at your feet. If he didn't know it, he should have guessed it, and, in any event, he had no right to play the gallant with my property; it's kidnapping, it's an abuse of confidence and a theft. He will live to rue it and his dear mamma will find out what it costs to have an ill-bred son play the courtier to great ladies at just the wrong time." "Come, come, my good neighbor," cried Madame d'Estrelle, deeply distressed and annoyed, "surely you do not propose to withdraw your favor from them; you are not going to give me the lie, for I placed you on a pedestal; you are not going to break off the friendship which you and I contracted to-day, just for a flower more or less in your collection? Your fortune makes a loss so easily repaired of little consequence." "You talk very jauntily about it! There are some things which millions can't replace, and which a man of taste considers beyond all price!" "Oh! _mon Dieu! mon Dieu!_ who could have guessed that?" "Julien knew it." "Impossible!" "I tell you he knew it." "Then he is mad; but that is not his mother's fault: she was not there." "It is his mother's fault! She encourages him to love you, she scrapes acquaintance with you in order to induce you to do what she did for her husband."