But a young man consults his eye, and an older man his ear.
Over forty, it is the clever tongue which wins; under it, the pretty face." "Ah, you rascal! Then you have made up your mind that five-and-forty years with tact will hold the field against nine-and-thirty with beauty.
Well, when your lady has won, she will doubtless remember who were the first to pay court to her." "But I think that you are wrong, Racine." "Well, we shall see." "And if you are wrong--" "Well, what then ?" "Then it may be a little serious for you." "And why ?" "The Marquise de Montespan has a memory." "Her influence may soon be nothing more." "Do not rely too much upon it, my friend.

When the Fontanges came up from Provence, with her blue eyes and her copper hair, it was in every man's mouth that Montespan had had her day.

Yet Fontanges is six feet under a church crypt, and the marquise spent two hours with the king last week.

She has won once, and may again." "Ah, but this is a very different rival.

This is no slip of a country girl, but the cleverest woman in France." "Pshaw, Racine, you know our good master well, or you should, for you seem to have been at his elbow since the days of the Fronde.