There, planting himself resolutely opposite the Colonel, he said, "Well, sir, now that we are alone, we had better have an explanation.

I don't know by what philter or incantation you have obtained such prodigious influence over my betrothed; but I know that I love her, that I have been loved by her more than four years, and that I will not stop at any means of retaining and protecting her." "Friend," answered Fougas, "you can brave me with impunity; my arm is chained by gratitude.

It shall never be written in history that Pierre Fougas was an ingrate!" "Would it have been more ungrateful in you to cut my throat, than to rob me of my wife ?" "Oh, my benefactor! Learn to understand and pardon! God forbid that I should marry Clementine in spite of you, in spite of herself.

It is through her consent and your own that I hope to win her.

Realize that she has been dear to me, not for four years, as to you, but for nearly half a century.