"You know the proverb: better late than never. And then, after all, I am only forty-eight; I am not an old man. You are fully as old as that, and yet you work!" "But I have always worked, monsieur; it's a habit with me, a necessity. I didn't have to make a study of it--a study which is often repellent when one begins it late in life." "Have you any place to offer me, monsieur?" "No, I have not." "Well, then, why do you ask me all these questions? I do not imagine that it is your purpose to make sport of me." "Is it yours to pick a quarrel with me?" "No, no! sapristi! I am not picking a quarrel with you--Gustave's uncle, and he my best friend! Oh! if you weren't his uncle, I don't say that--but you are his uncle.--Let us come to the point; I came to ask you where your nephew is at this moment." "My nephew is travelling: he is in one place to-day, in another to-morrow." "Oh! I see that we are going to have the same old song over again! You will not give me his address?--But if I want to write to him, to tell him something which will give him great pleasure, which will make him happy?" "Tell me, and I'll write it to him." "That isn't the same thing. But, no matter, I will tell you. You know, I suppose, that his _passion_, whom he thought he was surely going to marry this time, has thrown him over again, in favor of a very rich old count?" "I know all that, monsieur." "Good! but what you don't know is that I don't propose that my friend shall be played with with impunity. That is why I hunted up this Comte de la Beriniere; I insulted him; we fought a duel, and he is now in his bed with a famous sword-thrust in his right side." Monsieur Grandcourt jumped from his chair and struck his desk a violent blow, crying: "Is it possible? You have done that?" "As I have the honor to tell you. Do you wish to embrace me?" "On the contrary, monsieur, I am much more inclined to throw you out of the window!" "Indeed! well, as we are on the ground floor, if that will give you pleasure----" "Why, monsieur, this is a horrible thing that you've done! And you call yourself Gustave's friend! You seem to be trying to wreck his life. Can't you see that this Fanny is an infernal coquette, who cares for nothing but money and pleasure, and who never had the slightest feeling of love for my nephew?" "As far as that goes, I am entirely of your opinion." "Very well! do you think, then, that marriage with such a woman would make Gustave happy?" "_Dame!_ since he adores her----" "Why, monsieur, do I need to tell you that love doesn't last forever? Besides, what purpose does that sentiment serve in a household when it's not reciprocated? Gustave is kind-hearted, sensitive, affectionate--much too affectionate. What he needs is a sweet, modest, loving helpmeet." "That is true!" murmured Cherami; "and I know one of that sort."