"To speak more clearly, this fine gentleman has had the bad taste to prefer thy brother to thee."
She burst out laughing in his face, in spite of her rage. What a joker he was, this Landrillon?
"There's nothing to laugh at; it's just as I tell thee."
"Thou'rt lying! Thou'rt going dotty! How can anyone utter such lying stuff!"
"Better than that! Guidon pays him back in his own coin."
"Impossible!"
"Put the youngster to the proof then; it's easy enough. He has passed twentyone years, I presume, although he hardly looks it. Thou hast just had recourse to one of the customs of the country. There is another one which may apply to thy brother. To night, is not every youth of his age obliged to go to the dance and make choice of a companion, either temporary or permanent? We may wager that the young swell will show himself as frigid in the presence of no matter what petticoat as his protector did just now before yourself."
"All right!" Claudie said, with a voice at once heavy and hissing, "Ah, the hypo-
