how to rid yourself of an unacceptable or importunate lover."
After musing for a few moments, she exclaimed:
"I have it. I have thought of an admirable plan, and I am quite proud of my ingenuity. G——— M———, you see, is the son of our bitterest enemy. We must be revenged on the father, not, indeed, through the son himself, but through the son's purse. What I mean to do is to listen to his proposals, accept his presents, and then leave him in the lurch."
"A pretty enough project, doubtless," I said, "but you
seem to forget, my poor girl, that this is the very same road which led us straight to the Hôpital."
In vain did I point out to her the danger of doing as she proposed. She insisted that it would be only necessary for us to play our cards well; and found a ready answer to every objection that I urged.
Show me the lover who does not blindly humor every caprice in the woman he adores, and I will admit that I was to blame in yielding so readily. However that may be, it was agreed between us that G——— M——— should be made our dupe; whereas, by a strange turn of fate, I became his instead.
His coach drew up at the door at about eleven o'clock.
