“Name it!”

“That I do not understand a single word of what you have just been telling me.”

“What! — you do not understand a single word about M.

de Guiche’s quarrel with M. de Wardes,” exclaimed the princess, almost out of temper.

Manicamp remained silent.

“A quarrel,” she continued, “which arose out of a conversation scandalous in its tone and purport, and more or less well founded, respecting the virtue of a certain lady.”

“Ah! of a certain lady, — this is quite another thing,” said Manicamp.

“You begin to understand, do you not?”