how discriminating I have been, and we shall all be happy together again."
"But how can you possibly know, with such people, what you have got hold of?"
"By having the sense of delicate things. You pretend to have it, and yet in such a case as this you try to be stupid. Give that up; you might as well first as last, for the girl's an irresistible fact and it will be better to accept her than to let her accept you."
Gaston's sister asked him if Miss Dosson had a fortune, and he said he knew nothing about that. Her father apparently was rich, but he didn't mean to ask for a penny with her. American fortunes moreover were the last things to count upon; they had seen too many examples of that. "Papa will never listen to that," Mme. de Brécourt replied.
"Listen to what?"
"To your not finding out—to your not asking for settlements—comme cela se fait."
"Excuse me, papa will find out for himself; and he will know perfectly whether to ask or whether to leave it alone. That's the sort of thing he does know. And he also knows perfectly that I am very difficult to place."
"To place?"
"To find a wife for. I'm neither fish nor flesh. I have no country, no career, no future; I offer nothing; I bring nothing. What position under the sun do I confer? There's a fatuity in our
