"If I were a woman,édé I should prefer a man who loved nobody but me, and would be faithful to me."
"Oh! parbleu! what an idea! It isn't certain, by any means, that all women would prefer such a man. There are faithful lovers who are so tiresome!"
"And inconstant ones who are so attractive!"
"I go even further, myself, and maintain that the very fact that a man is faithful more than a little while makes him a terrible bore. He drives his mistress mad with his sighs, his protestations of love; he caresses her too much; he thinks of nothing but kissing her. There's nothing that women get so tired of as of being kissed."
"Oho! do you think so, my little Balloquet? That simply proves that you're a bad kisser, or that you're not popular. On the contrary, women adore caressing men; I know what I'm talking about."
"Oh! what a conceited creature this Fouvenard is! Think of it, messieurs! he would make us believe that the women adore him!"
"Your nose is too much turned up; women like Roman noses. You can never look sentimental with a nose like a trumpet."
"So you think that a man must have a languorous, melancholy air, in order to make conquests, do you? Balloquet, you make me tired!"
"I'll give you points at that game whenever you choose, Fouvenard. We will take these gentlemen for judges. Tell the waiter to bring up six women,--of any condition and from any quarter, I don't care what one,--and we'll see which of us two they will prefer. What do you say?"
Young Balloquet's proposal aroused general laughter, and a gentleman who sat beside me observed to me:
"It might well be that the ladies wouldn't have anything to say to either of them. What do you think?"
"I think that any ladies who would consent to grace our dessert, at the behest of a waiter, would do it only on one condition; and men don't make a conquest of such women, as they give themselves to everybody."
"Parbleu! messieurs, it is very amiable of us to listen to this discussion between Fouvenard and Balloquet as to which of them a woman would think the uglier; for my part, I prefer to demand an explanation of what Rochebrune said just now. He talked a long while, and I've no doubt he said some very nice things; but as I didn't quite understand him, I request an explanation of the picture, or the key to the riddle, if there is one."