asion presents itself. I respect
women who respect themselves.... It is not I who created the world; I
take it as I find it.... And as to marriage, the day when I shall find
a young girl with the four qualities of goodness of heart, sound
health, thorough self-respect, and cheerfulness,--the squaring of the
conjugal hypothenuse,--then I count for nothing all my long term of
waiting; like the great Doctor Faust, I become young again, and such
as I am, I give myself to her. My friend, if this same young girl of
whom you have been speaking (and by the way, I know her just as well
as you do) really unites these conditions,--I do not believe she does
so, though I shall see very soon,--why then, I will marry her
to-morrow--I will marry her to-night. But in the mean time, as I have
positively nothing to do,--if you happen to know a self-respecting
woman who needs to be kept from a bit of folly ... why, I am wholly at
your service.

Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,'
by E. Irenaeus Stevenson

TWO VIEWS OF MONEY

From 'The Money Question'

[The following passage occurs in the first act of Dumas's
play. The characters include the young parvenu Jean Giraud,
the aristocratic M. De Cayolle, and several others, all
guests in the drawing-room of the country-house of Madame
Durieu. In course of the conversation Giraud refers to his
father, at one time a gardener on the estate of M. De
Charzay.]

_Jean Giraud_--Oh, yes, yes, I have got along in the world, as people
say. There are people who blush for their fathers; I make a brag of
mine--that's the difference.

_Rene de Charsay_--And what is Father Giraud nowadays? Oh, I beg your
pardon--

_Jean_--Don't be embarrassed--we keep on calling him Father Giraud all
the same. He is a gardener still, only he gardens on his own account.
He owns the house that your father was obliged to sell a while ago. My
father has never had but one idea,--our Father Giraud,--and that is to
be a land-owner; I bought that piece of property for him, and so he is
as happy as a fish in the water. If you like, we will go and take
breakfast with him to-morrow morning. He will be delighted to see you.
How things change, eh? There, where a while ago we were the servants,
now we are the masters; though we are not so very proud, for all that.

_Countess Savelli_ [_aside_]--He has passed the Rubicon of parvenus!
He has confessed his father! Now