Count: I think the marshal will soon bring us Mr. Flatternot.
Countess: I can imagine no good from it, and, to be sure, I should be furious with regret to hand over Count Basil to the hands of a Russian lout, like Flatternot.
Count: It will be in our will to take Flatternot or reject him.
Countess: Count, friend, let us go to our apartments, that our expected guests should await us half an hour and see that they have come to your highness.
Count: For Heaven’s sake, don’t advise me that, if you do not wish to be a widow quickly.
Countess: But why?
Count: Mr. Flatternot, as I see it, is a man of merit, and certainly, being a major, does not wish to wait in a captain’s anteroom; he will get furious and cut me up.
Countess: He dares not do this before the marshal.
Count: Well, you see, madame, that to-day rank alone is not much respected, and people who value it highly are thought fools; and is Flatternot likely to contain himself for the marshal when
