I found her sitting up in her bed; she looked about forty-five, and still preserved traces of her former beauty; her countenance bore the imprint of sadness, but had no marks of sickness whatsoever. Her brilliant and expressive eyes, her intellectual face, and a suggestion of craft about her, all bade me be on my guard, and a sort of false likeness to the Charpillon's mother made me still more cautious, and fortified me in my resolution to give no heed to the appeals of pity. "Madam," I began, "what can I do for you?" "Sir," she replied, "I have heard the whole of your conversations with my daughters, and you must confess that you have not talked to them in a very fatherly manner." "Quite so, but the only part which I desire to play with them is that of lover, and a fatherly style would not have been suitable to the part. If I had the happiness of being their father, the case would be altered. What I have said to your daughters is what I feel, and what I think most likely to bring about the end I have in view. I have not the slightest pretence to virtue, but I adore the fair sex, and now you and they know the road to my purse. If they wish to preserve their virtue, why let them; nobody will trouble them, and they, on their side, must not expect anything from men. Good-bye, madam; you may reckon on my never addressing your daughters again." "Wait a moment, sir. My husband was the Count of----, and you see that my daughters are of respectable birth." "Have you not pity for our situation?" "I pity you extremely, and I would relieve you in an instant if your daughters were ugly, but as it is they are pretty, and that alters the case." "What an argument!" "It is a very strong one with me, and I think I am the best judge of arguments which apply to myself. You want twenty guineas; well, you shall have them after one of your five countesses has spent a joyous night with me." "What language to a woman of my station! Nobody has ever dared to speak to me in such a way before." "Pardon me, but what use is rank without a halfpenny? Allow me to retire. "To-day we have only bread to eat." "Well, certainly that is rather hard on countesses." "You are laughing at the title, apparently." "Yes, I am; but I don't want to offend you. If you like, I will stop to dinner, and pay for all, yourself included." "You are an eccentric individual. My girls are sad, for I am going to prison. You will find their company wearisome." "That is my affair." "You had much better give them the money you would spend on the dinner." "No, madam. I must have at least the pleasures of sight and sound for my money. I will stay your arrest till to-morrow, and afterwards Providence may possibly intervene on your behalf." "The landlord will not wait." "Leave me to deal with him."