But, oh! if you would only listen to some advice.

Let me take up this matter; let me look into the life and habits of this man,--find out if he is kind, or bad-tempered, or gentle, if he commands the respect which you merit in a husband, if he is able to love utterly, preferring you to everything, even his own talent--" "What does that signify if I love him ?" "Ah, true!" cried the dwarf.
At that instant Madame Mignon was saying to her friends,-- "My daughter saw the man she loves this morning." "Then it must have been that sulphur waistcoat which puzzled you so, Latournelle," said his wife.

"The young man had a pretty white rose in his buttonhole." "Ah!" sighed the mother, "the sign of recognition." "And he also wore the ribbon of an officer of the Legion of honor.

He is a charming young man.

But we are all deceiving ourselves; Modeste never raised her veil, and her clothes were huddled on like a beggar-woman's--" "And she said she was ill," cried the notary; "but she has taken off her mufflings and is just as well as she ever was." "It is incomprehensible!" said Dumay.
"Not at all," said the notary; "it is now as clear as day." "My child," said Madame Mignon to Modeste, as she came into the room, followed by Butscha, "did you see a well-dressed young man at church this morning, with a white rose in his button-hole ?" "I saw him," said Butscha quickly, perceiving by everybody's strained attention that Modeste was likely to fall into a trap.