--Oh, Monsieur le Curé, Veronica is not capable of that.
--Therefore, since you have discovered ... discovered a secret which would ruin me, what do you calculate on making from this secret, and what do you demand?
--I, Monsieur le Curé, cried the servant, I demand nothing ... oh! nothing.
--You are hesitating. Yes, you want something. Come, it is you now who hang your head and blush, while it is I who am the culprit.... Come, place yourself there, close to me.
--Oh! Monsieur le Curé, I shall never presume.
--Presume then to-day. Have you not told me that you were my friend?... Yes. Well then, place yourself there. Tell me, Veronica, what is your age?
--Mine, Monsieur le Curé. What a question! I am not too old; come, not so old as you think. I am forty.
--Forty! why you are still of an age to get married.
--To get married? Oh, upon my word, if I had wanted to do so, I should not have waited until now.
--I believe you, Veronica. You could have done very well before now. But you may have changed your ideas. Our characters, our tastes change with time, and a thing displeases us to-day, which will please us to-morrow. There are often, it is true, certain considerations which stop us and make us reflect. Perhaps you have not a round enough sum. With a little money, at your age, you could still make an excellent match.
--And even without money, Monsieur le Curé. If I were willing, somebody has been pestering me for a long time for that.
--And you are not willing. The person doubtless does not suit you?
--Well and good. We cannot use too much reflection upon a matter of this importance. I am not rich, Veronica, but I should like to help you and to increase, if it be possible, your little savings, your dowry in fact.
--You are very good, sir, but I do not wish to get married.
--It depends on tastes, you know.... You are in a great hurry then to get rid of me, Monsieur le Curé.
--Come, come, Monsieur le Curé. I see your intentions. You say to yourself: "she holds a secret which may prove troublesome to me; with a little money I will put a padlock on her tongue, I will get her married, and by this means she will trouble me no more." Is it a bad guess?
--You have not guessed it the least in world, Veronica.