Pray, do not reproach me with my weakness; what else could I do?
When one has been for twenty years the most submissive of fathers, one does not emancipate one's self in a day; I never have been in the habit of erecting barriers, and it is scarcely likely that I could learn to do so at my age.

Ah! _mon Dieu!_ who knows if, after all, her heart has not counselled her well, if one day she will not satisfy us all that she was in the right.

It must be confessed that this _diable_ of a man has an indescribable charm about him.

I can detect only one fault in him: he has committed the error of existing at all; it is a grave error, I admit, but thus far I have nothing else with which to reproach him.
"When one loses a battle, nothing remains but to plan an orderly retreat.

Count Larinski, I regret to inform you, is armed with all needful weapons; he carries with him his certificate of birth, and certificate of the registry of death of both his parents.