Ah, young sir, as you read Virgil, you will excuse me once more.
It was for me he wrote: 'Fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota, Et fontes sacros frigus captabis opacum.' "And this as well: 'Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestes, Panaque, Silvanumque senem!'" "Nymphasque sorores!" finished Camors, smiling and moving his head slightly in the direction of Madame de Tecle and her daughter, who preceded them.
"Quite to the point.

That is pure truth!" cried M.des Rameures, gayly.
"Did you hear that, niece ?" "Yes, uncle." "And did you understand it, niece ?" "No, uncle." "I do not believe you, my dear! I do not believe you!" The old man laughed heartily.

"Do not believe her, Monsieur de Camors; women have the faculty of understanding compliments in every language." This conversation brought them to the chateau, where they sat down on a bench before the drawing-room windows to enjoy the view.
Camors praised judiciously the well-kept park, accepted an invitation to dinner the next week, and then discreetly retired, flattering himself that his introduction had made a favorable impression upon M.des Rameures, but regretting his apparent want of progress with the fairy-footed niece.
He was in error.
"This youth," said M.des Rameures, when he was left alone with Madame de Tecle, "has some touch of the ancients, which is something; but he still resembles his father, who was vicious as sin itself.

His eyes and his smile recall some traits of his admirable mother; but positively, my dear Elise, he is the portrait of his father, whose manners and whose principles they say he has inherited." "Who says so, uncle ?" "Current rumor, niece." "Current rumor, my dear uncle, is often mistaken, and always exaggerates.

For my part, I like the young man, who seems thoroughly refined and at his ease." "Bah! I suppose because he compared you to a nymph in the fable." "If he compared me to a nymph in the fable he was wrong; but he never addressed to me a word in French that was not in good taste.