"
"I remember, indeed----"
"Then why do you come to me with your bill? It is with my wife
that you have opened an account. Apply to her, and leave me in
peace."
"Madame promised me----"
"Teach her to keep her promises."
"It costs a great deal to retain one's position as a leader of
fashion; and many of the most distinguished ladies are obliged to
run into debt," urged Van Klopen.
"That's their business. But my wife is not a fine lady. She is
simply Madame Trigault, a baroness, thanks to her husband's gold
and the condescension of a worthy German prince, who was in want
of money. SHE is not a person of consequence--she has no rank to
keep up."
The baroness must have attached immense importance to the
satisfying of Van Klopen's demands, for concealing the anger this
humiliating scene undoubtedly caused her, she condescended to try
and explain, and even to entreat. "I have been a little
extravagant, perhaps," she said; "but I will be more prudent in
future. Pay, monsieur--pay just once more."
"No!"
"If not for my sake, for your own."
"Not a farthing."
By the baron's tone, Pascal realized that his wife would never
shake his fixed determination. Such must also have been the
opinion of the illustrious ruler of fashion, for he returned to
the charge with an argument he had held in reserve. "If this is
the case, I shall, to my great regret, be obliged to fail in the
respect I owe to Monsieur le Baron, and to place this bill in the
hands of a solicitor.
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