"Oh, my benefactor! Learn to understand and pardon! God forbid that I should marry Clementine in spite of you, in spite of herself. It is through her consent and your own that I hope to win her. Realize that she has been dear to me, not for four years, as to you, but for nearly half a century. Reflect that I am alone on earth, and that her sweet face is my only consolation. Will you, who have given me life, prevent my spending it happily? Have you called me back to the world only to deliver me over to despair?--Tiger! Take back, then, the life you gave me, if you will not permit me to consecrate it to the adorable Clementine!" "Upon my soul, my dear fellow, you are superb! The habit of victory must have totally twisted your wits. My hat is on your head:--keep it; so far so good. But because my betrothed happens to remind you vaguely of a girl in Nancy, must I give her up to you? I can't see it!" "Friend, I will give you back your hat just as soon as you've bought me another one; but do not ask me to give up Clementine. In the first place, do you know that she will reject me?" "I'm sure of it." "She loves me." "You're crazy!" "You've seen her at my feet." "What of that? It was from fear, from respect, from superstition, from anything in the devil's name you choose to call it; but it was not from love." "We'll see about that pretty clearly, after six months of married life." "But," cried Leon Renault, "have you the right to dispose of yourself? There is another Clementine, the true one; she has sacrificed everything for you; you are engaged, in honor, to her. Is Colonel Fougas deaf to the voice of honor?" "Are you mocking me? What! I marry a woman sixty-four years old?" "You ought to; if not for her sake, at least for your child's." "My child is a pretty big boy. He's forty-six years old; he has no further need of my care." "He does need your name, though." "I'll adopt him." "The law is opposed to it. You're not fifty years old, and he's not fifteen years younger than you are; quite the reverse!" "Very well; I'll legitimize him by marrying the young Clementine." "How can you expect her to acknowledge a child twice as old as she is herself?" "But then I can't acknowledge him any better; so there's no need of my marrying the old woman. Moreover, I'd be excessively accommodating to break my head for a child who is very likely dead. What do I say? It is possible that he never saw the light. I love and am loved--that much is substantial and certain; and you shall be my groomsman." "Not yet awhile. Mlle. Sambucco is a minor, and her guardian is my father." "Your father is an honorable man; and he will not have the baseness to refuse her to me." "At least he will ask you if you have any position, any rank, any fortune to offer to his ward."