You know Melanie, whom I prevented from making her debut at the Vaudeville?
By taking her away from all society, lodging her in a comfortable manner and obliging her to work, I rendered her a valuable service.

She was a good girl, and, aside from her love for the theatre and a certain indolence that was not without charm, I did not find any fault in her and grew more attached to her every day.

Sometimes after spending long hours with her, a fancy for a retired life and domestic happiness would seize me.

Gentlemen with brains are privileged to commit foolish acts at times, and I really do not know what I might have ended in doing, had I not been preserved from the danger in an unexpected manner.
"One evening, when I arrived at Melanie's, I found the bird had flown.
That great ninny of a Ferussac, whom I never had suspected, and had introduced to her myself, had turned her head by making capital out of her love for the stage.

As he was about to leave for Belgium, he persuaded her to go there and dethrone Mademoiselle Prevost.