Page:The Reverberator (2nd edition, American issue, London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1888).djvu/98

88 talking as if we could make grand terms. You and the others are well enough: qui prend mari prend pays, and you have names which (at least so your husbands say) are tremendously illustrious. But papa and I—I ask you!"

"As a family nous sommes très-bien," said Mme. de Brécourt. "You know what we are—it doesn't need any explanation. We are as good as anything there is and have always been thought so. You might do anything you like."

"Well, I shall never take to marry a Frenchwoman."

"Thank you, my dear!" Mme. de Brécourt exclaimed.

"No sister of mine is really French," returned the young man.

"No brother of mine is really mad. Marry whomever you like," Susan went on; "only let her be the best of her kind. Let her be a lady. Trust me, I've studied life. That's the only thing that's safe."

"Francie is the equal of the first lady in the land."

"With that sister—with that hat? Never—never!"

"What's the matter with her hat?"

"The sister's told a story. It was a document—it described them, it classed them. And such a dialect as they speak!"

"My dear, her English is quite as good as yours. You don't even know how bad yours is," said Gaston Probert.

"Well, I don't say 'Parus' and I never asked