But La Boulaye was nothing daunted.

Lost he already accounted himself, and on the strength of the logic that if a man must hang, a sheep as well as a lamb may be the cause of it, he took what chances the time afforded him to pile up his debt.
"There is neither insolence nor presumption in what I have done," he answered, giving back the Marquis look for look and scowl for scowl.
"You deem it so because I am the secretary to the Marquis de Bellecour and she is the daughter of that same Marquis.

But these are no more than the fortuitous circumstances in which we chance to find ourselves.

That she is a woman must take rank before the fact that she is your daughter, and that I am a man must take rank before the fact that I am your secretary.

Not, then, as your secretary speaking to your daughter have I told this lady that I love her, but as a man speaking to a woman.