"Upon my word, my dear Gerbault," he exclaimed, "I have bad luck with your daughters! One marries just when I am about to ask for her hand. This one will have none of me; for I understand perfectly that her reply is simply a courteously disguised refusal. Well, I must make the best of it! I will take a trip into Italy, and try to console myself. The Italian women are not the equals of your daughters, but, at all events, they will distract my thoughts." And, a few days later, the Comte de la Beriniere did, in fact, leave Paris. But there was one person who was entirely unable to understand Adolphine's conduct: that was her sister Fanny. Learning that she had refused to marry either Monsieur de Raincy or the count, she went to see her one morning. "Can what father tells me be true? You have refused to marry, when two magnificent _partis_ have offered themselves? But, no, it can't be true; you haven't done that! or else you were sick at the time. Surely you didn't realize what you said, when you gave father that answer?" "Indeed I did, my dear love," Adolphine replied, with a smile; "I knew perfectly well what I was saying; I had considered the matter fully when I refused to marry those gentlemen." "Upon my word, I don't understand you! What reason, what motives, can have prompted your refusal? The Comte de la Beriniere has thirty thousand francs a year; and he would make you a countess. Just think of it--a countess! Isn't it perfectly bewildering to think of being called Madame la Comtesse?" "It tempts me very little." "To be sure, the count is no longer young; but, once married, if you knew, my dear girl, how little you think about your husband's age! Auguste might be sixty years old, now, and it would be all the same to me." "My ideas are not at all the same as yours, as I have already told you." "But I have had experience now, and you ought to listen to me. Come, let us admit that you refused the count because you thought he was too old, which is the merest childishness--that reason doesn't apply in the case of Monsieur de Raincy; he is young, good-looking----" "He has a stupid, self-sufficient manner." "But what difference does that make? I have always heard it said that a stupid man makes an excellent husband. I should be glad enough if my husband was stupid! Then he wouldn't keep flinging little sarcastic remarks at me when I talk about the state of the market--of the rise or fall in railway shares. Auguste is clever--yes, very clever. But what good does it do me to have him clever and agreeable in society? In his own home, a husband never uses his wit except to make sport of his wife. Monsieur Anatole de Raincy isn't as rich as the count, but he has a very good position in society. Where do you expect to find a better match?" "I expect nothing." "Why do you refuse these offers, then?" "Because I do not love either of them."