Still, monsieur, I am willing to proceed upon the lines which would appear to be more agreeable to yourself.
"This, then, is the sum of the affair that brings me: The late Marquis de Condillac left two sons.

The elder, Florimond--who is the present marquis, and who has been and still continues absent, warring in Italy, since before his father's death--is the stepson of the present Dowager, she being the mother of the younger son, Marius de Condillac.
"Should you observe me to be anywhere at error, I beg, monsieur, that you will have the complaisance to correct me." The Seneschal bowed gravely, and Monsieur de Garnache continued: "Now this younger son--I believe that he is in his twenty-first year at present--has been something of a scapegrace." "A scapegrace?
Bon Dieu, no.

That is a harsh name to give him.

A little indiscreet at times, a little rash, as is the way of youth." He would have said more, but the man from Paris was of no mind to waste time on quibbles.
"Very well," he snapped, cutting in.

"We will say, a little indiscreet.
My errand is not concerned with Monsieur Marius's morals or with his lack of them.