tion over
to his son.

_Fourchambault_--You are still harping on that? But, my dear, you might
as well bury me alive! Already I'm a mere cipher in my family.

_Madame Fourchambault_--You do not choose your time well to pose as a
victim, when like a tyrant you are refusing me a mere trifle.

_Fourchambault_--I refuse you nothing. I merely explain my position. Now
do as you like. It is useless to expostulate.

_Madame Fourchambault_--At last! But you have wounded me to the heart,
Adrien, and just when I had a surprise for you--

_Fourchambault_--What is your surprise? [_Aside_: It makes me tremble.]

_Madame Fourchambault_--Thanks to me, the Fourchambaults are going to
triumph over the Duhamels.

_Fourchambault_--How?

_Madame Fourchambault_--Madame Duhamel has been determined this long
time to marry her daughter to the son of the prefect.

_Fourchambault_--I knew it. What about it?

_Madame Fourchambault_--While she was making a goose of herself so
publicly, I was quietly negotiating, and Baron Rastiboulois is coming to
ask our daughter's hand.

_Fourchambault_--That will never do! I'm planning quite a different
match for her.

_Madame Fourchambault_--You? I should like to know--

_Fourchambault_--He's a fine fellow of our own set, who loves Blanche,
and whom she loves if I'm not mistaken.

_Madame Fourchambault_--You are entirely mistaken. You mean Victor
Chauvet, Monsieur Bernard's clerk?

_Fourchambault_--His right arm, rather. His _alter ego_.

_Madame Fourchambault_--Blanche did think of him at one time. But her
fancy was just a morning mist, which I easily dispelled. She has
forgotten all about him, and I advise you to follow her example.

_Fourchambault_--What fault can you find with this young man?

_Madame Fourchambault_--Nothing and everything. Even his name is absurd.
I never would have consented to be called Madame Chauvet, and Blanche is
as proud as I was. But that is only a detail; the truth is, I won't have
her marry a clerk.

_Fourchambault_--You won't have! You won't have! But there are two of
us.

_Madame Fourchambault_--Are you going to portion Blanche?

_Fourchambault_--I? No.

_Madame Fourchambault_--Then you see there are not two of us. As I am
going to portion her, it is my privilege to choose my son-in-law.

_Fourchambault_--And mine to refuse him. I tell you I won't have your
little baron at any price.

_Madame Fourchambault_--Now it is your turn. What fault can you