, and construct queer ideas about matters and things in
general. As for me, I am waiting. It is certain at any rate that I
never have had for any other woman the devotion which I have had for
her. And still it is quite certain that I shall never marry her. So
if she has had numbers, I shall swell the number. And if she has
not, I shall take the first ticket, just as I would do for a street
car."

"The case is very simple. Of course, she will never marry. Who in
the world would marry the Marquise Obardi's daughter, the child of
Octavia Bardin? Nobody, for a thousand reasons. Where would they
ever find a husband for her? In society? Never. The mother's house
is a sort of liberty-hall whose patronage is attracted by the
daughter. Girls don't get married under those conditions."

"Would she find a husband among the trades-people? Still less would
that be possible. And besides the Marquise is not the woman to make
a bad bargain; she will give Yvette only to a man of high position,
and that man she will never discover."

"Then perhaps she will look among the common people. Still less
likely. There is no solution of the problem, then. This young lady
belongs neither to society, nor to the tradesmen's class, nor to the
common people, and she can never enter any of these ranks by
marriage."

"She belongs through her mother, her birth, her education, her
inheritance, her manners, and her customs, to the vortex of the most
rapid life of Paris. She can never escape it, save by becoming a
nun, which is not at all probable with her manners and tastes. She
has only one possible career, a life of pleasure. She will come to
it sooner or later, if indeed she has not already begun to tread its
primrose path. She cannot escape her fate. From being a young girl
she will take the inevitable step, quite simply. And I would like to
be the pivot of this transformation."

"I am waiting. There are many lovers. You will see among them a
Frenchman, Monsieur de Belvigne; a Russian, called Prince Kravalow,
and an Italian, Chevalier Valreali, who have all announced their
candidacies and who are consequently maneuvering to the best of
their ability. In addition to these there are several freebooters of
less importance. The Marquise waits and watches. But I think that
she has views about me. She knows that I am very rich, and she makes
less of the others."

"Her drawing-room is, moreover, the most astounding that I know of,
in such, exhibitions