"Is she nearly eighteen?"

"She is and she is not, for time passes so quickly. A girl goes to sleep
a child, and wakes up old enough to be married. Would you like to be
informed, without loss of time, as to her fortune?"

"Oh! I should not care much about her dot. I look out first for other
things."

"I know, of course; but Jacqueline de Nailles comes of a very good
family."

"Is she the daughter of the deputy?"

"Yes, his only daughter. He has a pretty house in the Parc Monceau and
a chateau of some importance in the Haute-Vienne."

"Very good; but, I repeat, I am not mercenary. Of course, if I should
marry, I should like, for my wife's sake, to live as well as a married
man as I have lived as a bachelor."

"Which means that you would be satisfied with a fortune equal to your
own. I should have thought you might have asked more. It is true that
if you have been suddenly thunderstruck that may alter your calculations
--for it was very sudden, was it not? Venus rising from the sea!"

"Please don't exaggerate! But you are not so cruel, seeing you are
always urging me to marry, as to wish me to take a wife who looks like a
fright or a horror."