Friendship is a jewel." "I never smoke," answered the Marquis, "but I shall be charmed to come to your rooms; only don't let me encroach on your good-nature.

Doubtless you have engagements for the evening." "None till eleven o'clock, when I have promised to go to a soiree to which I do not offer to take you; for it is one of those Bohemian entertainments at which it would do you harm in the Faubourg to assist,--at least until you have made good your position.

Let me see, is not the Duchesse de Tarascon a relation of yours ?" "Yes; my poor mother's first cousin." "I congratulate you.

'Tres grande dame.' She will launch you in 'puro cielo,' as Juno might have launched one of her young peacocks." "There has been no acquaintance between our houses," returned the Marquis, dryly, "since the mesalliance of her second nuptials." "Mesalliance! second nuptials! Her second husband was the Duc de Tarascon." "A duke of the First Empire, the grandson of a butcher." "Diable! you are a severe genealogist, Monsieur le Marquis.

How can you consent to walk arm-in-arm with me, whose great-grandfather supplied bread to the same army to which the Due de Tarascon's grandfather furnished the meat ?" "My dear Frederic, we two have an equal pedigree, for our friendship dates from the same hour.