as mistresses? Is not their proposal a compliment to both of you, as
well as to me? Can anything be more polite than this? And do they not
prove the honesty of their intentions by wishing to enter these holy
bonds?

MAD. O, father! Nothing can be more vulgar than what you have just said.
I am ashamed to hear you talk in such a manner; you should take some
lessons in the elegant way of looking at things.

GORG. I care neither for elegant ways nor songs. I tell you marriage is
a holy and sacred affair; to begin with that is to act like honest
people.

[Footnote: The original has a play on words. Madelon says, in addressing
her father, _vous devriez un pen vous faire apprendre le bel air des
choses_, upon which he answers, _je n'ai que faire ni d'air ni de
chanson_. _Air_ means tune as well as look, appearance.]

MAD. Good Heavens! If everybody was like you a love-story would soon be
over. What a fine thing it would have been if Cyrus had immediately
espoused Mandane, and if Aronce had been married all at once to Clelie.

[Footnote: _Cyrus_ and _Mandane_ are the two principal characters of
Mademoiselle de Scudery's novel _Artamene, on the Grand Cyrus_; _Aronce_
and _Clelie_ of the novel _Clelie_, by the same author.]

GORG. What is she jabbering about?

MAD. Here is my cousin, father, who will tell as well as I that
matrimony ought never to happen till after other adventures. A lover, to