You should have
remembered you were engaged. You forgot that, too, I suppose. And then
you go and forget your quarrel. It's the most revolting exhibition of
levity I ever heard of."
"Good heavens, Chevalier! You don't imagine I have been picking up that
quarrel last time I was in Paris or anything of the sort. Do you?"
"Eh? What matters the precise date of your insane conduct!" exclaimed
the Chevalier testily. "The principal thing is to arrange it..."
Noticing General D'Hubert getting restive and trying to place a word,
the old _emigre_ raised his arm and added with dignity:
"I've been a soldier, too. I would never dare to suggest a doubtful
step to the man whose name my niece is to bear. I tell you that _entre
gallants hommes_ an affair can be always arranged."
"But, _saperlotte, Monsieur le Chevalier_, it's fifteen or sixteen years
ago. I was a lieutenant of Hussars then."
The old Chevalier seemed confounded by the vehemently despairing tone of
this information.
"You were a lieutenant of Hussars sixteen years ago?" he mumbled in a
dazed manner.
"Why, yes! You did not suppose I was made a general in my cradle like a
royal prince."
In the deepening purple twilight of the fields, spread with vine leaves,
backed by a low band of sombre crimson in the west, the voice of the old
ex-officer in the army of the princes sounded collected, punctiliously
civil.
"Do I dream? Is this a pleasantry? Or do you mean me to understand that
you have been hatching an affair of honour for sixteen years?"
"It has clung to me for that length of time.
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