"Alas! she is so rich!" he answered, in a tone of chagrin.
"True, she is encumbered with a large and _un_-encumbered estate."
"A great misfortune for me!" sighed Gaston.
"A misfortune which you cannot help, and which Bertha will never remember when she bestows her heart upon one who is worthy of the gift."
"How can she ever deem _me_ worthy? Even if I succeed in making myself a name,--a position; even if I become all that you have caused me to dream of being,--this dreadful imped--ed--ediment, this stammering which renders me ridiculous in the eyes of every one, in her eyes even, will"--
"Your stammering is only the effect of timidity," answered Madeleine, soothingly. "Believe me, it is nothing more; as you overcome your diffidence and gain self-possession, you will find that it disappears. For instance, you have been talking to me for some time with ease and fluency."
"To _you_, ah, yes; with _you_ I am always at my ease,--I have always confidence. It is not difficult to talk to one for whom I have so much affection,--_so much_, and yet not _too much_."
"But to any one else, if I venture to open my heart, I hesitate,--I get troubled,--I--I stammer,--I make myself ridic--ic--iculous!"
"But I do," reiterated Gaston, warmly. "Fancy a man saying to a woman he adores, yet in whose presence he trembles like a school-boy, or a culprit, 'I--I--I--lo--ov--ov--ove you!'"
"The fact is," began Madeleine, laughing good-naturedly.
"_There! there!_" cried M. de Bois, with a gesture of impatience and discouragement; "the fact is, that you laugh yourself,--_you_, who are so forbearing!"
"You could not help it, I know. It is precisely that which discourages me. And yet it is very odd! I have one method by which I can speak for five minutes at a time without stopping or hesitating."
"Indeed! Why, then, do you not always employ that magical method in society?"
"It would hardly be admissible in polite circles. Would you believe it?--it is very absurd, but so is everything that appertains to us unfortunate tongue-tied wretches."
"I--I--I do not dare; you will only laugh at me again."
"Well, then, my method is to become very much animated,--to lash myself into a state of high excitement, and to hold forth as though I were making an exordium,--to talk with furious rapidity, using the most forcible expressions, the most emphatic ejaculations! Those unloose my tongue! My words hurl themselves impetuously forward, as zouaves in battle! Only, as you may conceive, this discourse is not of a very classic nature, and hardly suited to the drawing-room,--especially, as I receive great help, and rush on all the faster, for a few interjections that come under the head of--of--of swear--ear--earing!"