COUN. Really, Madam, small towns are strange places. In them there is
no respect of persons, and I have just been making a few calls at
houses where they drove me almost to despair; so little regard did
they pay to my rank.
JU. Where could you expect them to have learnt manners? They have
never been to Paris.
COUN. Still, they might learn, if they would only listen to one; but
what I think too bad is that they will persist in saying that they
know as much as I do--I who have spent two months in Paris, and have
seen the whole court.
JU. What absurd people!
COUN. They are unbearable in the impertinent equality with which they
treat people. For, in short, there ought to be a certain subordination
in things; and what puts me out of all patience is that a town
upstart, whether with two days' gentility to boast of or with two
hundred years', should have impudence enough to say that he is as much
of a gentleman as my late husband, who lived in the country, kept a
pack of hounds, and took the title of Count in all the deeds that he
signed.
JU. They know better how to live in Paris, in those large hotels you
must remember with such pleasure! That Hotel of Mouchy, Madam; that
Hotel of Lyons, that Hotel of Holland, what charming places to live
in![3]
COUN. It is true that those places are very different from what we
have here. You see there people of quality who do not hesitate to show
you all the respect and consideration which you look for. One is not
under the obligation of rising from one's seat, and if one wants to
see a review or the great ballet of Psyche, your wishes are at once
attended to.
JU. I should think, Madam, that during your stay in Paris you made
many a conquest among the people of quality.
COUN. You can readily believe, Madam, that of all the famous court
gallants not one failed to come to my door and pay his respects to me.
I keep in my casket some of the letters sent me, and can prove by them
what offers I have refused. There is no need for me to tell you their
names; you know what is meant by court gallants.
JU. I wonder, Madam, how, after all those great names, which I can
easily guess, you can descend to Mr. Thibaudier, a councillor, and Mr.
Harpin, a collector of taxes? The fall is great, I must say. For your
viscount, although nothing but a country viscount, is still a
viscount, and can take a journey to Paris if he has not been there
already. But a councillor and a tax-gatherer are but poor lovers for a
great countess like you.
COUN. They are men whom one treats kindly in the country, in order to
make use of when the need arises. They serve to fill up the gaps of
gallantry, and to swell the ranks of one's lovers. It is a good thing
not to leave a lover the sole master of one's heart, lest, for want of
rivals, his love go to sleep through over-confidence.
JU. I confess, Madam, that no one can help profiting wonderfully by
all you say. Your conversation is a school, to which I do not fail to
come every day in order to learn something new.