Peer.
[Shrugging his shoulders.]
Old fossil Highnesses who make it
Their pride to keep plebeian blots
Excluded from their line's escutcheon.
Mr. Cotton.
Then nothing came of the affair?
Monsieur Ballon.
The family opposed the marriage?
Peer.
Far from it!
Monsieur Ballon.
Ah!
Peer.
[With forbearance.]
You understand
That certain circumstances made for
Their marrying us without delay.
But truth to tell, the whole affair
Was, first to last, distasteful to me.
I'm finical in certain ways,
And like to stand on my own feet.
And when my father-in-law came out
With delicately veiled demands
That I should change my name and station,
And undergo ennoblement,
With much else that was most distasteful,
Not to say quite inacceptable.—
Why then I gracefully withdrew,
Point-blank declined his ultimatum—
And so renounced my youthful bride.
[Drums on the table with a devout air.
