He was seeking in his mind for a beginning for his first phrase.
He had just found it, when suddenly Antoinette said to him, in a low, agitated, but distinct voice: "I have a question for you.

What would you think if I should some day marry M.Abel Larinski ?" M.Moriaz started up, and his cane, slipping from his hand, rolled to the bottom of the declivity.

He looked at his daughter, and said to her: "I beg of you to repeat what you just said to me.

I fear I have misunderstood you." She answered in a firmer voice, "I am curious to know what you would think if I should marry, some day or other, Count Larinski." He was startled, thunderstruck.

He never had foreseen that such a catastrophe could occur, nor had the least suspicion that anything had passed between his daughter and M.Larinski.Of all the ideas that had suggested themselves to him, this seemed the least admissible, the most improbable and ridiculous.