You forget, madame, that Valerie is betrothed to Florimond and that she clings faithfully to her betrothal." "Vertudieu!" swore the Marquise, "and what is this betrothal, what this faithfulness?
She has not seen her betrothed for three years.

She was a child at the time of their fiancailles.

Think you her faithfulness to him is the constancy of a woman to her lover?
Go your ways, you foolish boy.

It is but the constancy to a word, to the wishes of her father.
Think you constancy that has no other base than that would stand between her and any man who--as you might do, had you the address--could make her love him ?" "I do say so," answered Marius firmly.
She smiled the pitying smile of one equipped with superior knowledge when confronted with an obstinate, uninformed mind.
"There is a droll arrogance about you, Marius," she told him, quietly.
"You, a fledgling, would teach me, a woman, the ways of a woman's heart! It is a thing you may live to regret." "As how ?" he asked.
"Once already has mademoiselle contrived to corrupt one of our men, and send him to Paris with a letter.

Out of that has sprung our present trouble.