"Madam," he said, "one of these gentlemen is from Scotland Yard, and the others are reporters.
"I am afraid you will find them quite persistent, madam," he said.
"So you really cannot help us at all, madam?" he said at length.
"Yes, madam; but circumstances have been against me.
"As for me, madam," replied the gentleman, coldly, "I have need of nothing."
"It is very pretty, madam," said he, gravely examining it; "but I do not think it will wash well; I am afraid it will fray."
"But then you know, madam, muslin always turns to some account or other; Miss Morland will get enough out of it for a handkerchief, or a cap, or a cloak.
"It means, madam, that you yourself, so good, so charming, so sensible, you have laughed sometimes -- smiled, I should say -- at the idle prattle of that good Parry, for whom your royal highness to-day entertains such a marvelous susceptibility."
"Good heavens!" said Rochester, "how sad your royal highness is to-day; in truth we seem ridiculous fools to you, madam."
"Ah, madam," said Rochester, coming charitably to the help of his companion, who had remained, as we have said, behind, "if Parry cannot see your royal highness, the man who follows him is a sufficient guide, even for a blind man, for he has eyes of flame.
Then turning toward the princess and bowing: "Madam," said the young man, "the king, your brother, desires me to have the honor of presenting to your royal highness, Monsieur le Chevalier d'Artagnan."
My dear madam, I object to him--to him--emphatically to Ned himself.'
He is of most expensive, ruinously expensive habits; and if, in a moment of caprice and wilfulness, he were to marry this young lady, and so deprive himself of the means of gratifying the tastes to which he has been so long accustomed, he would--my dear madam, he would break the gentle creature's heart.
A marriage with my son, whom I should be compelled to disown, would be followed by years of misery; they would be separated, my dear madam, in a twelvemonth.
'If I don't appear to express my concurrence in those last sentiments of yours,' returned Mr Chester, 'quite so strongly as you might desire, it is because his being there, my dear madam, and not proving conversational, led me hither, and procured me the happiness of this interview with one, in whom the whole management, conduct, and prosperity of her family are centred, I perceive.'
