material things! how dense is his understanding, and what gloom
overcasts his soul!

MAD. What can I do, my dear? I am ashamed of him. I can hardly persuade
myself I am indeed his daughter; I believe that an accident, some time
or other, will discover me to be of a more illustrious descent.

CAT. I believe it; really, it is very likely; as for me, when I consider
myself...




SCENE VII.--CATHOS, MADELON, MAROTTE.


MAR. Here is a footman asks if you are at home, and says his master is
coming to see you.

MAD. Learn, you dunce, to express yourself a little less vulgarly. Say,
here is a necessary evil inquiring if it is commodious for you to become
visible.

[Footnote: All these and similar sentences were really employed by the
_precieuses_.]

MAR. I do not understand Latin, and have not learned philosophy out of
Cyrus, as you have done.

[Footnote: _Artamene, ou le Grand Cyrus_, (1649-1653) a novel in ten